Kiss of a New Moon
by Citree
Summary: [SasuSaku][ShikaIno] You need to discover the best things in life before you can truly learn to enjoy it, and maybe you'll discover how to find those things someday. Maybe you'll even find love...[NejiTen coming]
1. Orange Blues

**Hahah, I'm evil. Enjoy Thanks to Rachel (xStrawberryCream) for her support in getting this up at last :p)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Sadsadsad.**

**Chapter One: Orange Blues**

**­**

I sighed. New times, new classes, new school…everything was new… And apparently when parents said they understood everything you said, and that you should talk to them about anything you need, they were lying.

Sure, they might have gone through what I was going through at one time in their lives, but those times were over for them…they didn't really care where they moved anymore, or if they even had any friends…things were different for adults…or are different, I should say.

I brushed waist-length, bubble-gum coloured hair out of my eyes an stood up straight—well straighter than I'd been standing before and marched into my new school…Madame Folle's Jailhouse for the Challenged Student! Ok, just kidding, it's actually called Orange Hill Academy, but everyone I've talked to so far haven't called it that. (Ok, so it was only three people…but still!) Apparently Madame Folle was some dude (oops, I mean _dudette_) who lived here a long time ago…or so I'd been told. I wasn't really sure why everyone would call the school (or academy) something after her, but I guess I'd find out sooner or later…

I'd moved into Orange Hill at the end of summer…One last summer to spend with my friends before I was sent to a freak show because of my mom's job. Jeez. She was never even home anyways! Why would I have to move for her sake? But dad said we had to, so I did. The only thing I knew about Orange Hill so far was that they didn't grow oranges. And from what I could figure out by myself, that was a pretty stupidly ironic thing.

(About the oranges, I guess it was too cold to grow them properly. I loved oranges, but not that it mattered. Despite the fact that my old town had grown them, the ones we bought in the store were shipped in from somewhere else. Sorta stupid if you think about it, but hey, I guess the grocery store needed to make money somehow…or something like that. Although if you think about it, technically the grocery stores would have been loosing money from having to ship things into town...oh well, I suppose they need to be let alone with their whacked up theories of money-making skills and such.)

The school was musty inside…a little weird, according to the fact that they'd re-done it on the inside over the summer. Maybe they were lying. The door to my right said head office, while the one to the left said dorms. Did I mention it's a boarding school? (Which would probably be the reason for the dorms) Well, if I didn't, now you know. I walked into the office, the door slamming accidentally behind me. The secretary's head snapped up.

Her glasses, which could be mistaken to be several inches thick, were held onto her bony face by means of one of those ugly beaded chains that old women tend to wear when they don't with to carry their glasses, simply hanging them around their necks like tacky necklaces whenever they weren't needed.

"Can I help you, deary?" Her voice sounded old…like a scratched record or something—muffled but crackly at the same time.

"Umm…I'm new here. My name's Haruno Saku—"

"Oh! So you're the new girl? Miss Haruno?" She smiled. Large, horse-like teeth sparkled as if newly polished or something. Wait…or rather, her dentures sparkled as if newly cleaned…which their pretty well probably were. "Come this way deary!" She stood up to her full height of almost a foot shorter than me and marched over.

Bony, cold hands grabbed my wrist, yanking me down to her height as she dragged me down the hall to…another doorway? "Here's the principal, dear. He'll be with you in a moment. Have a seat there until her rings you in." She waddled away down the hallway from which she came.

I sighed…again, and plopped myself down into a chair. The chair was comfy…but old…like something you'd find at a grandmother's house that seems like it's been around for a couple of centuries, but is still as comfortable as ever.

"H-hello," a small voice muttered.

I looked to my side. Large, white eyes stared back at me. A girl, probably about my age, but smaller and mouse-like smiled slightly. I could tell she was shy, and had probably surprised herself by speaking out to someone new.

"Hi! My name's Haruno Sakura. I'm new here." I grinned, awkwardly hoping she would respond.

"N-new? R-really? W-we don't get many n-new people around h-here…M-my name's H-hyuuga H-hinata, b-by the way."

"Nice to meet you!" I smiled truly this time. Perhaps she really wasn't that shy. "Oh yeah…why don't you get many new people?"

"N-no reason…we just don't. I g-guess people don't really l-like it around here. W-we only get one or two n-new people a year. Th-there probably won't be any other new people till next year."

"Wh—"

"Miss Haruno, the principal can see you now." A metallic voice buzzed at me from a speaker in the wall. I jumped to my feet at the sudden loud voice—Hinata's could barely be heard, but the speaker could only not be heard if you were partially deaf…Or something like that.

I gave Hinata a salute and grin before smoothing out the lavender coloured skirt of my uniform, creased from sitting and walking into the principal's office. It was dusty...unsurprisingly for all the world that there were about a billion old books and tinker-toys that were scattered about everywhere. (Think Dumbledore's office if you don't know what I mean :p) The desk at the end of the room was cast over by a shadow from the lack of windows at that end.

"Soooo…Haruro Sakura?"

"Ummm…it's Haruno, sir."

"Ah. Hanuro. Well, this is your first day at the Academy, is it not?"

"…Yes, it is…"

"Yup yup. Sooo…Can I help you with anything my dear?"

My god, what a dough-head. I rolled my eyes. Could the principal of the school be anymore stupid? Or the principal of anything for that matter? Honestly! "Umm…Sir—"

"Please! Call me Bob!" (Wtfff?)

My left eye twitched involuntarily. "Umm…Bob-sama. I'm here because this is my first day in Orange Hill."

He merely nodded. Perhaps he couldn't hear me properly.

"I'm new to the school…"

Another nod. I gritted my teeth. Or perhaps he just needed a little…encouragement.

"I DON'T KNOW ANYTHING AND NEED HELP GETTING AROUND THIS PLACE!"

"Oh…my apologies. Apparently you aren't as young as you look." He coughed and rubbed on of his ears. Hopefully that had given him the message that I didn't have too much patience at this time in the morning. I looked at the shadows he sat in, fed up, annoyed and… and…annoyed more.

"And what is that supposed to mean!"

"Sorry." He coughed again. "Ahem. Well, first off, welcome to Orange Hill Academy. I am Mr. Amaya Den, headmaster here. You'll be staying with a roommate in the dorms that you may have noticed on your way in here. There is no need to bring anything into the school, as everything you'll ever need is in the closets located at the back of every classroom, and in your room already."

Well jeez. No more call me Bob? Talk about a bad case of multiple personality disorder! "Ok…? Is that all?"

"Not really…"

"…"

"Actually, it is. I lied. Here's the key to your room. I trust your roommate will help you with anything you'll need. A schedule of your classes is tacked to the back of the door in your room, as you'll be sharing the same classes as your roommate. There should also be one with the rest of your clothes, if you need one to carry around. Good luck!"

I took that as a farewell and left…quickly. Mr. 'Bob' seemed a little bit freaky… I sighed for the third time in about an hour and looked at the key he'd given me. Room 3475!

I walked out of the office, past the chair the Hinata and me has sat in. She was gone now, probably off somewhere in the insane building, doing whatever Hinata normally did. Past the secretary, and into the hallway, I felt a sigh of relief go through me. At least I didn't have to listen to some mental dude lecture me about the way that the school worked for another hour or something.

Past the door labeled 'DORMS' and into yet another hallway. It reminded me of an airport at first glance, minus the fact that there were no large suitcases and groups of tired people with tickets in hand standing everywhere. The hall seemed to extend forever. I could barely see the other end of it. Doors on both sides started at number 3400 to my left, 3401 on the right and so on as far as I could see.

Walking down the hall, several of the doors were artistically graffitied on by the residents. Others weren't. Some of the had large, ugly wreaths of various things, like some kind of hospital or something. I'd been walking for about five minutes, looking at the numbers on the right.

"3411, 3413, 3415, yawn, 3417…" My mouth was starting to dry out…and I still had quite a few rooms to go before reaching mine. I felt like just sitting against the wall next to me and sleeping there for the night, despite the fact that it was only about 9:45 am, and I still had a whole day to go. I clenched my teeth together and willed myself to go on again, although I knew that sooner or later my temper was going to get the better of me

"EEAAAAAAAGGGHHHHRRRRRR!" How many freaking rooms in this school were there! I barely looked big enough to fit 20 from the outside! I'd been walking for about ten more minutes. "WHY ME!" I glared at the nearest wall, willing to smash my head into it. A girl, who I supposed had heard my outburst walked up beside me. Her sky blue eyes looked at me, a long blonde ponytail swishing behind the back of her head.

"Can I help you?" Her voice was quite a bit louder than Hinata's, but not in a bad way.

"I need to find this room," I half shouted, shoving the key under her nose. "My name's Sakura, by the way. Haruno Sakura."

She grinned at me, unfazed by my attitude. "I'm Yamanaka Ino!" Her grin turned into a smirk, "The room you need is right there. She pointed behind me and walked off with a giggly, "Ja ne!"

Nice going, Sakura. First day here, and you've already made a ruckus in the hall and told the principal off. Woohoo. I could tell I'd enjoy my time here. I opened the door to my new home with a twist of the key and walked inside.

"Oi! How'd you get inside here?" A girl with long, chestnut coloured hair and bright amber eyes stared at me, a lid in one hand and mascara wand in the other. A wet, black streak ran from one of her eyes to the other side of her face. "You scared the crap outta me! Who are you anyway?"

"Ummmmm…I'm new here…and I'm supposed to be your roommate…" I watched wet mascara slide down the girl's face, eye twitching again.

"Umm? That's a nice name! Is that your first name or last?" She grinned, paying no attention to the back stain that was running down her face still.

"umm…it's Haruno Sakura, not Umm.." I winced inwardly and shut the door behind me.

"Okay!"

"…You have mascara running down your face…"

"Oh well…That's like the second time it's happened today. The reason why I only buy non-waterproof should be quite obvious now. I'm Tenten by the way!" (Does she seriously have a last name! --')

She wiped the mascara off her face with a cloth and pulled her hair up into two plaits at each side of her head. Swinging them behind her shoulders, she stood up. "I'm glad I have a roommate this year! Last year it was so lonely…" She smiled, "Well, I'll come back in a few minutes! Gotta go out for a minute. I'll show you around when I get back!" With that, she simply ran out the door.

I stared at the door. Was that twitchy eye ever going to go away? And what was with this new school anyways? Why was everyone so weird? If someone had let mascara run down her face in my old town, they would have been spazzing out all over the floor, trying to get it off.

I smiled to myself. Thinking of the past was fun, even though I knew it would never be the present again. I had loved my old town. My house, my room…my friends… but I guess life just wasn't always fair, and you have to go with the flow if you're going to make it somewhere in this world.

Sooo… to sum the morning up, my hyper spazz-tik room mate's name was Tenten, I knew two other people besides her, and my principal was screwed in the head. Lucky, lucky me.

I sat down on the bed that opposed the one that I thought was Tenten's, judging my the messed up sheets and blanket, as well as the pajamas on the floor beside it. I guess having a room mate would be fun…even if Tenten sort of seemed like the type of person who stayed up all night watching tv and playing videogames really loudly. I opened the chest at the foot of my bed. More lavender uniforms with white blouses, as well as an extra tie. A pair of air-knit shorts and a light purple t-shirt with the school logo on the front of it were also there. For phys-ed I supposed. Pajamas were also there. A folded piece of paper lay on one of the shirts.

I opened it. "Dear Miss Haruno, We are glad that you have come to attend this school! Your room mate will help you with anything that you need, but should she be ill or unable to, enclosed in a schedule of your classes, the rooms that they're in and a list of all the other rooms that you might need."

I turned over the envelope and sure enough, out came another folded piece of paper.

8:00 am: Breakfast, room 1002

9:30 am: Science, room 1234

10:45 am: Mathematics, room 2235

11:00 am: Art, room 1198

12:10 pm: Lunch, cafeteria, East Wing

1:25 pm: Weaponry and Self Defense, West Wing

2:40 pm: Geography, room 3400

-insert cool rewind noise here-

"Huh!" What kind of whacked up place was this? Weapons? What was that supposed to mean? Self defense? Ok, sure self defense was normal, but weapons! My old school has considered mechanical _pens_ dangerous! We weren't even allowed to carry them around with us! We had to use non-mechanical pencils instead, but that's beside the point.

I guess Tenten would have a lot of explaining to do to me… I almost felt sorry for her, as I already had quite a few different questions floating around in my head, but of what I knew, she didn't seem like the type of person that would really care about answering some noob girl's inquiries.

I looked back at the schedule.

3:55 pm: End of classes

6:00 pm: Dinner, cafeteria, East Wing

Seemed like a pretty tiring schedule to me. But I guess that's what came along with the fact that there were no parents, and you had your own room to stay up all night in. I lay back on the bed. The ceiling over Tenten's bed was decorated with pictures and posters, as were the walls. My side of the room seemed depressingly bare compared to hers. Hopefully the school would have some sort of store inside it or around it where I could buy wall-scrolls or posters or something to decorate.

For not, I simply pinned up a picture of me and my best friend from my old town. It was an old picture…well all of mine were. It was taken when I was about five…so almost ten years ago, I guess. Kirin, my friend was a little bit shorter than me, her auburn coloured hair blowing into her face in the wind. My hair was kept out of my face with a red ribbon. It was funny how looking at pictures was like bringing back a little piece of memory from the dusty place that all old memories seem to go in the back of your mind, just waiting to be remembered.

I walked over to the window. A pretty glass rose hung from the cream coloured curtains in front of it. I was glad that there were none of those ugly white blinds that my old school has used. No more of the plastic sheets that let just about as much light through as they blocked out when you were just getting to the good part of a movie, and no more of the threat the one of them might fall onto your head if you accidentally knocked into one when you were walking beside the window.

The outside was pretty, mush to my surprise, as the view of the front was very dismal and grey. Maple trees lined the outside of a courtyard, with a fountain in the center. Benches were all around the fountain, and off to the side was a fire pit. My heart skipped a beat. This had to be a dream. Come on! Things like this only happened in fairytales! I leaned towards the latch on the window and—

"Hey!"

I whipped around, eyes wide. No one had scared me like that in a long time. Usually I was the one who was doing the scaring! Tenten stood in the doorway, face flushed from probably running down the long hallway the led to our room.

"Found everything you need here? I should take you around to see everything." She grinned and beckoned to me.

**Mwahaha. Than ending deserves a kick in the head. But I'm too tired to extend this chapter anymore, so it shall end now. Woohoo.**

**Hope you enjoyed, and if you though this chapter sucked, you should read the next one anyways, because…because I said so. And review. Or not. Whatever.**

**Insane cup of Lemonade,**

**Citree **


	2. Eyecatcher

**I have no life bwahahaha. Yes, I purposely spelled a lot of things wrong in the ending cap of the last chapter! Actually, I didn't, but still. No one has to know that… And yes, math was intentionally only 15 minutes smacked haha, thnx for catching that Rachel  But I'm too lazy to fix, it, so blah. Maybe a 15 minutes math class would be a good thing, anyways…who knows…**

**Disclaimer: If I owned Naruto, hell would freeze over, and the world would be ruled by flying toasts while monkeys had humans as pets. The end. (I don't own it? No duh.)**

_**Non-Sakura thoughts**_

**(Author's notes)**

**A skip in time, usually a few minutes, to a couple of hours at most. I'll let you know if it's more.**

* * *

**Chapter Two: Eyecatcher**

**Last time: **

_I whipped around, eyes wide. No one had scared me like that in a long time. Usually I was the one who was doing the scaring! Tenten stood in the doorway, face flushed from probably running down the long hallway the led to our room._

"_Found everything you need here? I should take you around to see everything." She grinned and beckoned to me._

**Start Chapter two**

"Actually, before we go one the tour, I guess I'd better show you around the room, huh?"

"Umm…It doesn't really matter to me."

"Okay! We'll start with the room then!" She pulled me over to a shelf to the right of the window. "This is the entertainment cupboard."

"Are you serious!" I mean come on! First the awesome backyard, then an entertainment shelf?

"Actually I'm not serious. There's only a TV with a DVD player. If you want something other than that, you're gonna have to buy it yourself."

"With what? I just got here, and the only things that I see are the TV and the clothes that are in the box in front of my bed! How are we supposed to afford to buy anything?"

"That's actually also up to you. There are various things around the school that you can do. Sort of like jobs, except most of them are only a one-time thing unless they're like helping out with a team or something, but even those jobs don't last very long. I have a job in the weaponry class, so you could come and see what it's like sometime."

"Really? Thanks!" I grinned. All of this, and a chance to earn money!

Tenten frowned. I could hear her mumble something under her breath, eyebrows creased as if she were thinking. "Oh yeah! The only other things that there are for me to show you are the bathe room, and…well there isn't really anything else in here." She walked over to one of the walls, which I noticed had a door. An old brass plate with someone in a bath was tacked to it. An eyesore that was blaringly obvious as to what lay beyond the door.

"This is the bathroom. There's a shower, bath, toilet, and everything else you'd find in a bathroom somewhere else.

"Okay…"

She smiled again. "I'll take you around the school, now I guess." She turned towards the door, "But you'd better not forget where this room is. It's really, really easy to get lost in this place. And I should know, because I've been here for three years and still get lost every once in a while."

"We'd better get to the cafeteria. If you're more than a few minutes late, they don't feed you and you have to wait for the morning to eat!" Tenten half jogged, half walked ahead of me.

"Are you freaking serious!" My stomach growled loudly as if furthering my point. Although I supposed that after all of the awesome things that the school had, there would have to be some sort of a drawback. After all, things weren't always awesome.

"Nope, but the ladies that serve the food get mighty mean when you're late. And besides, all the good food gets taken, so you're better off getting there early than that. Of course, you can always buy your own food. A lot of people do that. There's a microwave and mini oven and boiling water if you decide to do that.

To my surprise, the cafeteria was only a few minutes walk away from our room. It confused me, since the cafeteria was on a completely different wing, and floor for that matter, than our room. Maybe I was just over-analyzing how far away everything was. Maybe it was just that foyer that was really far away from everything else. I'd never know. But hunger cancelled all those thoughts, and I decided that I'd leave them alone for now.

"OI! TENTEN! WE SAVED A SEAT FOR YOU!" I felt like my eardrums wanted to burst. Looking for the source of the sound, I noticed a boy and spiky blonde hair and…whiskers! He and the other people seated around him waved towards us. I noticed both Ino and Hinata among them, but all of the others were people I hadn't even seen before.

"Come on, Sakura! My friends saved us seats." She yanked my hand and pulled me over. I nearly spilled the food piled on my tray several times before we came to a halt in front of Tenten's friends.

"Who's that?" An accusing finger from the blonde boy was stuck in my face. Apparently he was neither quiet, nor able to contain emotions within himself. I frowned slightly at him.

"This is Sakura! She's new here, and my room mate."

Ino grinned, "Yelled at any other walls recently?" I felt my face turn red. She made a silly face, "It's okay. Every one does that one in a while. And _some_ of us do it more than others." Her aqua coloured eyes flicked from me to the blonde boy and back again, as if hinting something.

"Heyyyy! You two know each other?" Tenten placed accusing hands on her hips, interrupting us. "You didn't tell me that you'd met anyone else here, Sakura!"

"Actual—"

"Tenny, we only just met for a second. She couldn't find her room…and did a Naruto."

Tenten sniffed, offended. I could tell that the nickname 'Tenny' wasn't very appealing to her. She probably liked it just about as much as I did being called SakuSaku by my mom. But pet names were just something you learned to live with…or not. It depended on your personality.

"Can we please eat now!" An exasperated voice called out from a little to the left of where Ino sat.

The blonde boy frowned at us, and then looked at the bowl of steaming ramen in front of him. Ino whacked him on the head. "Naruto! Can't you see we're talking! Go ahead and eat if you want to!"

He winked at me and gave Ino a mocking foxy grin before proceeding to stuff his face with noodles. Ino simply ignored him and turned back to me. "Why don't you sit beside me? Then we can all eat without more…annoyances." The latter word directed to the blonde, she moved over to provide room for me to sit.

I'm Uzumaki Naruto, by the way!" The blonde boy grinned at me through a mouthful of noodles, his words slurred together to sound something more like 'I moo zoomaki narewtoe, bydawae!" He gave another foxy grin and returned to his ramen once more.

"Well, since you already know my, I'll introduce the rest of us." She pointed to the person sitting next to Naruto. His long, dark hair and milky eyes were a shocking resemblance to Hinata's own. "This is Hyuuga Neji, Hinata's cousin." He simply nodded at me, plainly uninterested in conversation at the moment. The next person, a tall, somewhat lanky girl with bright orange hair grinned at me. "She's Nezumishi Jin." A lock of hair on her right shoulder parted to reveal two mischievous black eyes and a wiggling snout. Ino blanched at the sight of the rodent, but addressed it anyway. "And _that_ is Kaida." The ferret disspeared back into the girl's hair as she turned back to her meal, lying itself over her neck like some kind of large, lumpy and living scarf.

I turned to Ino. We're allowed to have pets here?"

"Yup, but you have to get a special check from Amaya-sama (remember him from the last chapter?)

"Hmm, there's Nara Shikamaru and Inuzuka Kiba," She pointed across the table to two boys. The first looked bored, his hair in a pineapple-style ponytail. The latter had weird facial markings like Naruto, but his were two her triangles running downwards from both eyes. A small, white dog was perched on his hat like an absurd hat. "And Akamaru there is on Kiba's head."

She frowned. I could see her eyes flick from on side of the table to another, face to face, as if counting. "Normally we have a few others, but I'm not sure where they are right now." She shrugged and pulled a bento box from her bag.

"Sakura! Hurry up! We're gonna be late for class!" Tenten hammered her fists on the bathroom door.

"Just a minute!" I growled at her, turning back the mirror. Someone at lunch, presumably Naruto had taken to flicking bits of green onion in my hair. Whether it was to vex me, or just to be plain annoying, I'd never know, but it was painstaking to get all of the pieces out. I grabbed the last one visible to my eyes and ran out the door.

Tenten, who had raised her fist, ready to strike the door again narrowly missed smashing me on the nose. I screeched when I saw her hand and dove out of the way, landing at the feet of a frowning Ino.

"Well that was certainly graceful. Your big forehead tip you over or something?" She smirked at me, "And are you guys ever going to come to class? The bell's gonna ring in like two minutes!"

Tenten helped me to my feet and we ran out the door behind Ino. I accidentally slammed it shut behind me. The shiny, brass number-plate that bore the identity of our room number and its inhabitants fell crooked to one side from the force. I rolled me eyes and ran after Tenten and Ino, making a mental note to fix it later.

DINGDINGDING!

I fell into my chair, hair a messy…mess from running across a windy field on the way to the building my next class was in—The Weaponry and Self Defense classroom for that matter. I tried to catch my breath, closing my eyes. Either this school was some kind of…optical illusion from the outside, or I just wasn't looking at its size when I first pulled up to the entrance. The school grounds were so big, they could afford to make all of the wings except for the cafeteria's not even connected to the front of they school, and still have room for a sports field and many other things in-between them.

"Get up, lazy ass, this ain't nap time!" I snapped my eyes open to see a teacher staring at me. Her scruffy purple-black hair was tied in a messy ponytail.

I jumped to my feet with a mumbly, "Gomen, sensei."

"That's Anko-sensei to you, missy."

I could hear giggles behind my back. I felt my face flush from embarrassment. My first day in the room and I was already class clown. "Yes ma'am."

Thankfully the sensei turned away to yell at someone else…which turned out to be the whole class. Lucky for me I was standing right beside her when she started bellowing out orders to the other students, myself included.

"OKAY LADIES, PUT YOUR BAGS IN THE CORNER AND CHOOSE A STAFF FROM THE WALL TO MY RIGHT. TO ALL NEWCOMERS, THIS WILL BE YOUR ONLY STAFF FOR THE SESSION OF THIS CLASS, SO SHOULD YOU BREAK IT, YOU WILL BE REPLACING IT."

I swore that I could hear my eardrums protest in pain. Following other newcomers like myself over to where we were told, I threw my bag in a heap and grabbed a staff. It felt heavy…too heavy for someone like me. I put it aside and picked up another. This one was a lot lighter, and more suited to my height.

A sudden thought popped into my head. Ladies! The sensei had called us _ladies. _The meant…I looked around. There wasn't a boy in sight. Oh well, at least if I figured out some way to further embarrass myself none of the guys would find out about it and tease me…although I'm not sure if one of them teasing would be worse than what Ino could probably to if her mind was set to it.

"Grab a marker or pen-knife from the counter and put your name and room number on your staff. Change into your proper clothes for this please. The change rooms are on my left." Anko-sensei had apparently loosened the yelling when everyone had quieted down from before. A few red-faced girls still clothed in skirts and blouses ran into the rooms that Anko had gestured to. I was glad than I'd listened when Tenten said that changing before class was the best option. "And when you're done that, then spread out outside and start warm-up drills."

I grabbed a pair of scissors from my pencil case instead of bothering to look for a knife. I gingerly carved my name and 3475 beside it, afraid the blade would slip and jab me in the hand or something. When I was done, I followed the rest of the class through a door which I presumed led to the outside. Sure enough it did, and to a lush and rather pretty meadow at that. The grass was that thick, springy kind that made you want to jump into it and roll around. It was a healthy colour, unlike a lot of the sun-burnt lawns of the nearby residents. I finally felt like I was doing something right. But then I looked around. All of the other girls were doing drills with their staffs, probably memorized from other classes that they'd taken last year.

Looking to the nearest person I knew – Tenten – I tried to copy her movements… It was impossible. Clearly an expert, the speed of her staff was hard to track with even my eyes. It whirled around her, one drill going to another without stopping. I stared at her dumbfounded.

"You know, if you stand like that with your mouth open any longer, maybe it'll stretch to match your forehead."

"Shut up Ino-pig. At least I'm trying to warm up."

"Well, that's a lot of attitude! I was going to ask if you wanted help!" Ino's accusing crystal eyes looked at me, one platinum eyebrow raised. "If you're going to be like that, maybe I shouldn't help you!"

I turned to stare at Ino. "No! I didn't mean it! I'm just… Overwhelmed. Everything here is so…different."

"Sure y'are." She stuck her tongue out, "But I'll help you anyway. Just follow what I do, and I promise I don't go as fast as Tenny over there."

I smiled thankfully at her. Ino may be a bit…okay, maybe a lot pig-headed some f the time, but she really was a nice person. Perhaps she just had trouble expressing it without being too bossy or stuck-up.

She brought the staff in front of her. "Divide it as closely as you can into three parts with your hands. She put her hands on the staff, left palm facing up, and right facing down and grabbed the wood at its imaginary thirds. I followed. Always remember to keep your hands like this. Left up, right down, and in the thirds, otherwise none of the techniques will work. The showed her staff to me. The wood had a weathered and beaten appearance, unlike the pale colour and smoothness mine had. Two stars carved into the wood marked the spots where Ino's hands had been.

"You can help yourself remember where to put your hands with something like these if you want to. It's easy, and after a while it just becomes a habit to put your hand in the same position day after day." She brought the staff up to her shoulders, leaving her hand in the same position, merely twisting them slightly so that the position wouldn't be uncomfortable. "This is the stance you need to use a strike from above." She swung you hands again and the staff came whipping down in front of her making a soft '_whud_' when it hit the ground.

I brought my hands up like I'd seen Ino do. I was about to bring the staff swinging down when Ino stopped me. "No, your hands are in the wrong spots. You're moving them too close to each other. You need to keep them in the same spots. She took the staff from me and dug a knife into the soft, new wood. Where the knife had come from I'd no idea, but at least she was helping me. "You're exactly like I was when I first stared this." Two stars like the ones on her staff were now on mine.

"The stars aren't just so you know where to put your hands when you start out; they're also there so you can feel where to put them if you can't use your eyes." She gave the staff back to me. "There's an activity the Anko-sensei makes all the new people do, and it involves something very much alike to a piñata whacking contest. Believe me, you'll need them. Now try again."

I brought the staff back up to the same position. Once again I began to swing it down. But something caught my eye. I Looked over to Anko. She was walking along through the rows of warming up girls with someone. Ino's eyes followed mine over to the sensei and her companion.

She gave a mocking grin and burst out in a fit of giggles. "You're staring Sakura. And you should see your face!"

* * *

**A bit of a cliffhanger, but the next update is soon down the road, so it won't be that bad of a wait, ne?**

**Thank you for all the wonderful reviews and inspiration to update sooner :p hugs everyone**

**Sorry if there are any grammar errors, etc, as I didn't really have any time or patience to edit this chapter properly.**

**Hope you enjoyed! This chapter was fun to write, for some odd, odd reason. Meh. And haha, the stuff with Ino and her staff lessons was actually based on the first time we were using bows (that's what they called them there) in my Karate class. It was odd…and I kept moving my hands wrong and hitting myself with it. nostalgia'd**

**Citree**


	3. Enter the Snob

**Wahaha, what's this? Like the third time in a week I've updated! whistles That's gotta be some kind of personal record or something throws confetti Just as a side note, if you actually read this and review, write Boushi no Taka (haha, irony(it mean's hawk's eye :p))(I just want to know who actually reads these things)**

**Please don't hate me for anything that you might dislike about this chapter (although this time, feel free to flame me and let me know how much you hate it if you do hate it) everything will work out in the next chapter, so there's no need to worry about anything bad.**

'normal speech'

'_Words that should be enunciated (spoken/read with more force or emotion to be able to express emotions better, in a way)'_

'SAME AS ABOVE, BUT WITH EVEN MORE FORCE THAN THAT.'

**And now onto the next chapter grin**

**Chapter three: Enter the Snob**

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"Don't you know it's rude to stare, Sakura?" Tenten walked over to me and Ino, panting slightly from her vigorous workout. "Oi! Earth to Sakura! You still there? The light in the attic still on? Or did you suddenly become paralyzed from the neck up or something…"

"Huh?" I looked over to Tenten, "You say something?"

She rolled her eyes, "You were staring Sakura. It's rude to stare at someone."

Ino recovered from her fit of the giggles. She straightened up and gave a wave to the boy, who nodded back and continued talking with Anko.

"I thought this was an only girls class." I gave a questioning look to both Ino and Tenten.

"It is an only girls class, but some of the guys who have spare time this period like to come and talk to sensei about their training. He's probably asking about warm-up drills or something."

I gave Ino another blank stare.

"Anko teaches both the girls _and_ guys weapons classes, as well as supplies as a sub for the other teachers when they're sick or something."

I snickered, "Well I'm sure the guys must loooove that. Being taught how to use weapons by a—"

"Actually, she's a really good teacher," Tenten butted in. "And if any of them don't respect her, they learn soon enough."

"Why—"

"Because if they don't, she spars with them. They all end up getting knocked on their sorry little asses, so it's more of toying with them than sparring for her…Although there are some, like Naruto who just refuse to give in and let her teach."

I laughed. Naruto was exactly the type of person who would do that. Though his ego had been broken many times, it probably just kept coming back because of his stubborn mind. "So…Who was that guy talking to sensei?"

"Uchiha Sasuke." A voice came from behind me. A girl slightly taller than myself, but not quite as tall as Tenten stood there. Her long, light purple hair was tied in a ponytail like Ino's, probably for the lesson. A layer of bangs fell over her forehead reaching just past her cold aquamarine coloured eyes. She grinned evilly, "My boyfriend, and don't you dare stare at him, noob. I'm Suzume Shitahe by the way."

"Oh, hey shit-head." Ino didn't seem phased by the girl's attitude in the least. I, on the other hand was thoroughly pissed off. What kind of guy in the entire freaking world would choose to date someone like that bitch? Suuuuure, she might be pretty on the outside, but no amount of makeup could cover what was obviously under her evil, white skin. I felt my hand clench into a fist, ready and willing to smash her face in if she said anything else to offend me.

"Did someone shove another stick up your ass or something?" Ino looked at Shitahe, hands stuffed into her pockets.

I laughed inwardly, hand still clenched. Shitahe was exactly like this girl who I used to know…and didn't like very much, mind you, in my old school. A bossy, prissy snob that thinks the whole world revolves around them. Although back then, I'd still really been at the age where boys ran around with cooties and wearing pink frilly things was still considered "in".

And although I knew my parents didn't like me judging people off of first appearances (they went by the rule "don't judge a book by it's cover"), being in Shitahe's presence for about two minutes had already given her a spot on my 'ten people to loathe' list.

Shitahe sniffed at Ino. Then she gave another evil smile, "Well at least I have someone to go to the dance with, unlike you, Ino-pig."

"I do to!" Ino blurted out without really thinking; she wasn't the type to give up on things so easily.

The lavender-haired girl flittered her mascara coated eyelashes at us, "Oh reeeeally? Who? Your teddy bear?" She laughed, and then said in a fake baby voice, "Mr. Giggles?"

Tenten turned a laugh into a snort and covered her face with her hands as if coughing. Whoever 'Mr. Giggles' was, I didn't think too many people knew about him, but Tenten was obviously one of the few who did.

Ino's face flushed a bright cherry-red colour. "Noooo…" She protested.

"Then who?" Shitahe smirked, ready to enjoy her victory.

I could tell Ino was furiously going through a list of boys in her head. "Shkmru…" She muttered.

"Sorry, piggy, didn't hear that last thing."

"Sh-shikamaru" Ino stuttered out the boys name with almost as much of a tremor as Hinata's voice normally had.

Shitahe cackled, "Pinapple-head? Pfft, I'm sure you and him will enjoy your time there…on the buffet table! Piggy with pineapple on the side!" She giggled, but her giggles soon turned into full scale laughs. She hugged her arms around herself, cheeks red from cackling, although to me it sounded more like some kind of forced, pain-induced snorting.

insert cricket noise here

No one laughed along with her. I snickered in my mind; it was a pity she hadn't known that she was laughing alone a little later. Maybe her embarrassment would have shaken some sense into her. Instead she merely went 'ehehehh…' and stopped laughing.

She walked stiffly off, leaving a red-faced Ino and several smirking people in her wake. Perhaps being the most popular person with the best boyfriend in the Academy wasn't necessarily a good thing. Whoaaaaa there Sakura! Best boyfriend! I mentally slapped my self several times. Bad thoughts!

Ino slapped a hand to her forehead. "Ugghhhhh…What have I done?"

Tenten rolled her eyes, laughing a little. "Well it _is_ your fault for getting carried away again. And it seems that shitty's given you a new nickname, huh?"

I laughed at her last comment, but was curious about the one before it. "Again?"

Tenten smirked, "The last time it was stupider. Shitahe was all full of herself and her new dog, this ugly little Chihuahua. She kept saying how cut it was, and that its breed was the rarest in the world, and Ino said that her Bald Chinese Feng Shui was better."

"What the heck is that?"

"Don't ask…I think she made it up, huh?" Tenten looked over at the blonde, whose face was still covered by her hand. Perhaps she was trying to strangle herself. Ino nodded, and Tenten turned back to me. "She ended up getting out of it…by shaving Akamaru."

"She shaved Kiba's dog! And he let her!" I snorted. As if.

"Well she _did_ have to bring him loads, and like pay for Akamaru's feeding and stuff for a really long time."

"I HAVE TO WHAT!"

Naruto choked and started gagging on a piece of dango. Jin slapped him on the back until he coughed it up. He looked at ared-faced Ino, disbelief in his watering eyes.

"WHAT!" Shikamaru made an exasperated sound and slapped his hand to his face—exactly the same reaction Ino had had. "Innoooooooo…"

Tenten grinned at me, "I told you he'd do that," She whispered.

I scowled, forking five dollars out of my sleeve into her waiting palm. From what I knew from everyone else, Shikamaru was the smartest person around, but to someone who knew him for as long as Tenten apparently had, he was as easy to read as a book.

"Please? Just for me, Shika?" Ino gave him a puppy face.

He frowned, "So troublesome…"

"Please?"

"Fine."

"Really? Ohmigosh thank—"

"You cannot ever again call me 'Shika'."

"Agreed." She gave him a happy smile, patted his ponytail and flounced out of the hall before he could demand anything else of her.

He rolled his eyes. "Typical Ino…"

I laughed at him. He seemed so…hopeless. Maybe he was still the type who thought everyone of the opposite gender had cooties…but I could tell he would do anything for a friend. A thought came to mind, "Tenten, what's so important about this 'dance' thing anyway?"

She smiled, "I'll tell you later tonight. We're gonna be late for Geo." And with that, I once again found myself dragged down endless hallways and across large rooms to reach the classroom. I found it hard to believe Tenten had ever memorized where all the classes were.

"Hi Jin!" Tenten waved to the tall orange haired girl, who returned the wave and patted two empty seats next to her. I followed Tenten down the rows until we reached the seats that Jin had left empty for us. Kaida sniffed my hair before burrowing back into Jin's pouch for him.

Jin gave an evil giggle. "New teacher this year, Tenny. You know what that means." I could almost see 'evil planning' written across her forehead.

Tenten snickered. I crinkled my nose at them. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"We get to break him in."

DINGDONGDING

I could see the entire class leaning eagerly towards the door at the front of the room that the teacher always seemed to enter through. My eyes scanned the class room on both sides. Every single person was looking at that door. Then I looked beside Jin.

My face paled. It was that Sasuke person! He looked bored, but all the same, was still intently staring at the door. I know Tenten didn't like me staring, but I just couldn't help it. His onyx eyes were like pools of black liquid, and I was trapped, drowning in them. I felt eyes on the back of my head. Turning, I met the aqua eyes of one of the people I'd have wished I'd never met.

Shitahe drew a slender white finger over her throat, and mouthed to me, "You're dead."

I rolled my eyes at her, and turned to stare at the door like everyone else. I grew bored, switching my eyes to the clock. 3 o'clock…3:01…3:02…I felt my eyes grow droopy, and I rested my head on my right palm. Out of the corner of my half closed eye, I could see the door open and close.

A man stood there, running a hand through his grey shock of hair. He walked over to the teacher's desk, and then looked at the class. I stared at him. He was funny…looking…His left eye was covered by a sweat band, and he wore a mask on the bottom half of his face, leaving only the right eye exposed to the rest of the world. "I'm Kakashi-sensei, your geography teacher. And if you could be kind enough to open up to page 10 of your textbook, we would be able to begin the lesson."

He put his feet up on the desk before him and lazily flipped through the book, apparently not awkward at all with the fact that he had over 30 new pairs of eyes staring at him, and he was supposed to be teaching.

I saw Jin frown at him, her amber eyes narrowed in distaste. Apparently education wasn't something to be bent when it came to being taught properly. I elbowed her, "Come on, don't be so mean to a new teacher."

"That's not the problem," She hissed back at me, opening her textbook to the required page.

"Then what the heck is!"

"That's no new teacher." She flicked a piece of candy into her mouth, pulled out of some unknown pocket in her shirt. "That's the old home economics teacher from last year."

I felt my eye twitch yet again. "Home economics! Didn't that class like…die a couple of hundred years ago? My grandma used to take it! No one in my entire old school even knew what it was!"

She gave me an odd stare, "This place isn't your average school, girl. And don't have you have it on your schedule anyway?"

I shook my head, having memorized the names and times of the classes perfectly. Jin poked Tenten on the shoulder.

"Oi, Tenny, don't you have home-ec?"

She thought for a minute, and then nodded. I looked at her, frowning. "Yup, but not till like 1:30 tom—"

There was a weird sound, like some kind of vibrating, and then the weirdest song I'd ever heard began playing;

I'd like to be under the sea  
In an octopus' garden in the shade  
He'd let us in, knows where we've been  
In his octopus' garden in the shade

I'd ask my friends to come and see  
An octopus' garden with me  
I'd like to be under the sea  
In an octopus' garden in the shade.

"OH SHIT." Tenten grabbed her knapsack and groped around inside it, pulling out a vibrating, noisy cell phone. "Crapcrapcrapcrapcrap…"

We would be warm below the storm  
In our little hideaway beneath the waves  
Resting our head on the sea bed  
In an octopus' garden near a cave

We would sing and dance around  
because we know we can't be found  
I'd like to be under the sea  
In an octopus' garden in the shade

The entire class had now focused it's attention on a red faced Tenten—including a very startled sensei. I started off giggling, but I couldn't help it. Soon I was laughing like I hadn't a care in the world. First Tenten's shocked face, and then the absurd look that Kakashi-sensei had on the only visible spot on his face…it was too much for me. Jin laughed along with me, her husky voice sounding almost like an odd cough more than a laugh. She jabbed her finger on the off button; the freaky song stopped playing.

Tenten's face grew redder, but I could see the corners of her mouth up-turned in a smile. Then she giggled slightly, still embarrassed. I looked at Jin, and made the mistake of once again looking too far beside…right at Sasuke.

Though his mouth wasn't very happy looking, his eyes laughed along with us. He wrinkled his nose at me, and then returned to reading the textbook, a small grin on his lips.

"AHEM." The laughter ceased immediately, though out faces still showed the tell-tale signs. Kakashi-sensei frowned at us, his visible eye blank and annoyed, although I swore I could see a smile beneath his mask.

I heard a snicker from behind me, and when I turned around, I could see Shitahe mouth the word 'Immature' to the lavender haired boy beside her. They were obviously related, as I saw him look at me, that same evil expression in his cold eyes.

I ignored his look; I wasn't going to let people like that affect me anymore then they already had. I was fed up, and annoyed…but actually no longer cared. I opened the textbook to page 10. Oh woohoo. Now we're learning about the shapes of the countries…I gave Tenten a bored look, resting my head on a hand once more.

I awoke to the poking of a sharp object on my shoulder. I opened one tired eye at the clock. It read 3:50 pm. I slapped a hand to my head; I'd slept right through geography! I looked back towards my left side again; where the poking had come from.

Dark onyx eyes looked back at me, on eyebrow raised. I noticed Jin was gone, no longer sitting between us. "Your name's Sakura, right?"

I nodded.

"I'm Uchiha Sasuke. You fell asleep, and Jin told me to wake you two up before class ended if she wasn't back."

Us…two? Well if Jin was gone…that meant…I looked to my other side. Tenten's head rested on her desk, an opened textbook propped up to hide her face from where the sensei sat. I gave her a sharp jab in the stomach. She made a funny noise and jerked away, rubbing her belly where my finger had poked her. She looked at the clock.

With a yawn, she muttered, "Thanks for waking me up…" and put the text book flat on her desk, tired eyes staring at the blackboard.

"It wasn't me. Sasuke woke me up, and then I woke you up." She gave a surprised look to me.

"Where's Jin? She's usually the one to wake us all up!"

I shook my head; how would I know where the orange haired ferret owner had gone? I turned back to Sasuke, who I noticed was still looking at me. (I blushed slightly when I noticed this.) "Do you know where Jin went? Tenten wants to know."

He shook his head, blue-black bangs swishing in front of his face as he did so. "I think she went to a guidance appointment or something. No clue, really."

His voice was husky…sort of like Jin's, but in a much more masculine way. I found myself staring at his eyes once again…as if willing myself to fall into them or something. Bad Sakura! Bad _bad _BAD! I forced myself to look away, and purposely kicked my desk…hard. I could feel him looking at me, but I forced myself to look straight ahead.

I lay awake that night, staring at the ceiling. So much had happened…this was only my first day here! I smiled a little, listening to Tenten snore. I'd made friends…and an enemy for that matter, but that didn't really matter. I turned over and stared out the window. The moon shone brightly tonight…almost a full one if you asked me. The trees were pretty; just starting to turn those awesome colours that only come out at this time of year. I was going to enjoy my time here, and I didn't care who was going to try and stop me.

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**Sorry if the ending sucked…**

**You know what? I just noticed that I'm on chapter three and Sakura's still on her first day at school! Stupid, stupid, stupid Citree slaps self Oh well, I promise the next chapter will have time go by more quickly smile and fluffy sasusaku goodness :D**

**Q: How can that happen if he's going out with someone?**

**A: You'll see :)**

**Q: Is Shitahe's name supposed to mean anything?**

**A: Aside from being an easy way for me to give an evil character a bad nickname, nope. So I guess it doesn't mean anything?**

**Reviews are greatly appreciated (and I know I wouldn't normally put something like this in) and because I tried to make this chapter slightly funny (I'm more of an adventure writer than funny) so I'd like to know what you thought of it.**

**Haha, if any of you know the song Daiten Karen by Morikubo Shoutarou (yes, the dude that does Shikamaru's Japanese voice sings things) it inspired most of this chapter. That was completely random and out of context, but whatever.**

**Citree**


	4. Seashells and Starlight

**Yay, here's a super, super long chapter for you! bwahaha**

**Thanks for Rachel (xStrawberrycream) for beta-ing the last chapter and this one :D**

**And I'm sorry if I make Sasuke at all ooc, but I can't help it…I want him to be like…a nice guy-friend type of guy for some reason :p Maybe cause he's so screwed up in the anime…any who, on to the chapter!**

**Warning, prepare forodd, Citree-written fluff :D mwahahaha**

**Chapter four: Seashells and Starlight

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**

"YOU ARE MY SUNSHIIIIINE

MY ONLY SUNSHIIIINE

YOU MAKE ME HAPPYYYYY

WHEN SKIES ARE GREEEEEEEYYYY"

I glared at the alarm clock beside Tenten's bed. It was like a happy little fat man doing a dance and singing the song. Happy it may have been, but not at that hour in the morning. I threw **a** pillow at it, attempting to turn the noise off. It missed by about ten feet and landed with a 'fwumph' beside the window. I scowled and buried my head under blankets…only to have them ripped off by a cheery Tenten.

"Up and at'em, Saku! It's morning!" she chirped happily

"YOU'LL NEVER KNOOOOWWWWW DEEEEEEEAAAARRR

HOW MUCH I LOOOOOOVVVVEEE YOUUU

SO PLEASE DON'T TAAAAKE MY SUUUUNNSHIIINE AWAAAAYYYY"

I made a growly noise at her, attempted to turn over again…and landed on the floor on my ass. Being woken up by a noisy dude singing may have been bad enough but falling out of bed onto your ass right after it happens is far worse. She grinned at me and threw a lavender skirt and blouse at me, motioning for me to dress.

"It's time for brekkie, sleepyhead." She pulled her hair up into a ponytail this morning, and ran to the bathroom, a bottle of mascara in her hand. I yawned and grabbed the clothes she'd thrown at me. I lazily pulled them on after taking off my pajamas and throwing them in a corner beside me bed.

I couldn't even remember falling asleep last night…the last thing I could remember doing was looking out the window at the pretty autumn leaves…which were far prettier in the light, I noted, taking a look out the window. I was too tired to bother Tenten to get out of the bathroom so I could do my hair, so I just pulled it up into a ponytail for the time being.

xXx

"So what's this dance thing about anyway?" I poked Tenten for not telling me yesterday. We were sitting in the cafeteria beside a tired looking Jin and Ino. Across the table from us were Shikamaru and another boy I didn't know.

"Oh that? Well every year—"

"Let me tell her, Tenny. You're terrible at explaining things." Ino muttered, yawning. "This particular dance is something that only happens once a year, and it's not anything like the other ones."

"How?"

"Well, for one thing, all the other dances take place at either the dance hall down the road or in the gym, but this one isn't at either." She yawned again, taking a roll off of her plate and biting into it. "This dance is special because we get to go on a…field trip? You could call it that. Every year it's different."

"That sounds so cool! The best dances my old school ever had was when they played ugly music in our small gym while everyone sat in corners dying from heat. They crammed all the older grades in there, and with no air conditioning it was like death. What is it this year?"

Tenten made a face to show her sympathy. I took it to mean that all her life having gone to the Academy, there had never been anything like that, so she wouldn't really know what it was like. "It's some kind of beach party thing. We're driving a couple hours south and staying there for the weekend."

I stuck my tongue out f her and gulped down some mochi. (A/N: A mochi is a kind of rice cake) One thing was for sure, and that was that not even my parent's cooking could measure up the quality of food that they served here. Tenten and the others must have been spoiled for coming here so long. Beach party? I was already excited and it was only about 8 in the morning.

"Umm...could I sit here?" I choked on my mouthful of food, coughed and looked beside me with watering eyes. Sasuke stood there, a hand behind his head, as if to tell me he felt awkward standing there when everyone else around him was eating. "I woke up late and Shitahe didn't save me a seat…"

I saw his eyes dart towards the lavender haired priss and back to me. I nodded and moved over to make room for him to sit down. I almost felt sorry for him…but then again, it _was_ his fault for choosing her to go out with. He sat down and forked a waffle onto his plate, very much less tired than the rest of us were. He was wide awake, and looked almost cheery, but for people like Ino and Jin…let's just say they would have rather still been in bed.

I watched him shovel down the waffle. "Hungry much?"

He tried to laugh and almost choked. Coughing, he replied "A little" and went on eating.

I waited till he was done chewing. "So you're going to the dance with Shitahe, huh?" I didn't mean for him to think anything of it, I was just curious.

He frowned at his waffle. I felt embarrassed. Maybe he and Shitahe were going through problems or something. He made a face, "Actually she hates these dance things, so she's not going." He sighed… "Never mind; I don't want to burden you with my problems, Sakura."

Truth be told, I'd never really given any sympathy to guys like that. Always thinking you're too weak to care about anyone else's problems…I rolled my eyes and returned to the croissant on my plate. But suddenly I didn't feel like eating anymore. I missed my old school…I hadn't even spoken to Kirin since the last school season had ended. I wonder if she missed me at all… (A/N: remember Kirin from chapter one?)

Jin stood up. I'd never noticed it before, but she resembled a stork; all elbows and knees; clumsy and awkward all the time. I laughed inwardly. Leave it to my mind to start making jokes inside. I gave myself a mental slap and looked over to see if Tenten was done eating.

I laughed to myself. Shitahe wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed, challenging Ino to something when she wasn't even going to bet there. Maybe Ino didn't know, but Shitahe certainly did.

xXx

One week Later…-insert fast forward noise-

"OI! ARE YOU READY YET? YOU'VE BEEN IN THERE AN HOUR!" Tenten hammered her fists on the bathroom door. I snickered; it was my turn to hog the bathroom for once. I gave my hair one last brush before walking out. "Jeez, Sakura, we're going to a beach, not a prom!" I spun around, modeling my swimsuit for her.

It was a mint green coloured bikini. Little flower charms dangled on the ties at each side of the bottom. I had tied one of those translucent scarf's overtop of it, which was pink with little green leaf patterns. Tenten smiled, "It _does_ look nice though."

I looked at her, smiling. She was wearing a light blue bikini top with surfboarding shorts on the bottom. "But don't forget to bring sweaters and pants for later. It always gets cold. And bring at least one week's worth of clothes, because they always change the amount of time we're staying at a place for some reason. "She pointed to the open duffle bag on my bed. Where she'd made that appear from, I had no idea, but at least I didn't have to be a bag lady like I usually did. I started transferring clothes from my trunk into the bag.

Ino came skidding to a stop in our doorway, Jin and Hinata following closely behind. "You guys ready?" She grinned at us, noticing that we were both still packing. "You'd better hurry up!" she said, and ran out the door again, presumably to bother someone else. I finished throwing my clothes into the bag and slung it over my shoulder, grabbing a rolled up sleeping bag from under my bed in my left hand too. Tenten grabbed her own bag and ran out the door. I followed her, not wanting to get lost in the winding maze-like halls of the Academy.

The bus outside was like some kind of house on wheels…complete with a bathroom and refreshments cart. It was like one of those old fashioned English Double Decker busses, except a bazillion times better. I reclined in my seat, looking at the ceiling. Tenten's face came into my view.

"Happy? You look very well rested." She sat down next to me and put her hands behind her head. "It's gonna be a long ride…"

"Why?" I sat up, looking at her.

"Well you know how we're going to a beach?"

"Mmhmm…"

"Well Orange Hill isn't anywhere near any sort of beach unless you're going to swim in a yucky lake somewhere."

"So…?"

"So the drive to the nearest beach is about 6 hours."

My eye twitched. Six hours! The drive from Orange Hill to my _old_ town wasn't even that far! I leaned back again, "Well at least we're not on one of those ugly old yellow school buses that they used to make us ride all the time, huh?"

"Yellow buses? As if." She laughed, "I think we pay enough to attend the school that they can afford to hire one of these babies."

I grinned and nodded. I didn't really know how much my parents were paying to send me to the Academy, but it had to be quite a lot if they had things like coach **buses** and good food, as well as all of the lands that the school grounds had.

"Okay! Now we have a head count, kiddies, so sit tight and we'll be on our way soon!" The principal stood there, a putrid yellow 'Hawaiian' shirt on his top, a pair of ugly green shorts on the bottom. He had those stupid glasses that let you swing the tinted lenses out when you're not wearing them perched on his head, a clipboard in his hand. "I'm going to call out your names, so listen up. Remember people, listen and silent are spelled with the same letters!"

I gave him a blank stare, and so did everyone else. Tenten shrugged and sat up, a bored look on her face.

She nudged me, "You'd better listen really carefully, though. He tends to pronounce names wrong, and if you don't reply to him, they send out a search party to look for you…which could take hours. So just wait and talk after he's done calling out the names."

I nodded and looked back at Amaya-senpai, Academy principal with mental issues. "Abrami Shinu."

"Hai." The boy who spoke was tallish, with spiky brown hair. I noticed he was also in my geography class. I snorted. His name wasn't really Abrami Shinu, it was Aburame Shino. I guess Tenten was right to pay attention.

"Akimichi Cheesy."

"Mphglm."

I looked to the boy who had spoken surprised it was humanely possible to make such a horrible noise. His mouth was stuffed with chips (which explained the sound), and he managed to clear his windpipes and blurt out a 'Hai' after a minute.

"Aneshi Ami."

"Hai, hai…"

I suddenly grew very sleepy. I started to zone out…he wasn't even near my name, so I guess it didn't really matter.

xXx

"Fuuma Sasame."

"Present."

Crap. I sat up and snapped back to the present. Already at 'F'? I sighed. At least I hadn't been missed…yet.

"Gaara."

"Hn."

"Haku?"

"Here."

"Harno Sakra?"

"Hai." I relaxed; now I didn't have to listen to his boring voice anymore.

A few minutes later, he ended with a flourish at 'Yaminiki Ini' and tossed his clipboard aside. I was thankful he hadn't found anyone missing. The drive was already going to take long enough as it was. I pulled a sweater out of my bag and threw it on over my bathing suit top when the AC started in the bus.

Tenten yawned. "I hope there won't be any traffic on the way…"

"Okay! Trip overview!" A familiar voice spoke out from the front of the bus. Anko stood there, a grin on her face and a tired Kakashi behind her. Genma, my home economics teacher looked at us from one of the front seats. "This time, as you know we'll be going to Shikon Beach, to the south, and our drive time is approximately 6 hours to get there. We'll be there camping for one week, so you'd better not hate beaches." She winked and sat down beside Genma.

The bus started down the road…a very bump road I might add, as the luggage was flying everywhere. My bag ended up landing on my head at least twice, and when it fell out of the overhead rack for the third time I got fed up and stuffed it under my seat.

I discovered the recline button on my chair and pressed it at precisely the time that the bus went over a particularly large bump. My chair went flying back—right into a sleeping Naruto's knees.

"NANIIIII?"

"N-naruto-kun! Y-you're inside! P-please don't y-yell!" Poor Hinata covered her ears. I think Naruto had scared the crap out of her with his yell, as her face was quite a bit paler that usual. He looked at her, and gave an embarrassed smile. She turned a bright pink and looked away.

"Sorry Naruto. I dunno how to get it back up…"

"Okay, first off dobe, don't scream when you're inside a bus. I wasn't even near you, and you were too loud. Second, just don't yell in general…please?"

I looked beside me. Sasuke stood there, a frown on his face and one hand on his left ear—the ear that had been closest to Naruto. He pointed to a switch on the opposite side of my chair from the recline button. "Third off, you use that one to come up. It's a stupid design, but I guess there isn't really anything you can do about it."

I pressing the switch he's pointed to and removed my chair from Naruto's lap. He rubbed his legs.

"Sorry, Naruto. I didn't mean to squish you," I apologized to him. He smiled and told me it was no problem. I thanked Sasuke for telling me how those stupid chairs worked, and found myself staring out the window bored within a few minutes.

The countryside passed by quickly…like it was going somewhere, even though I knew we were the ones that were moving…the bumpy road had ended some time ago, and we were on the highway now. I stood up.

Avoiding Tenten legs on the way into the aisle, I went over to the fridge at the other side of the bus. I passed Ino and Shikamaru on the way…Both of their eyes were closed, and Ino rested her head on Shikamaru's shoulder, snoring quietly. He opened one eye and raised a finger to his lips—he didn't want to wake her up. I grinned. Perhaps Ino hadn't really just chosen his name out of all the guys she knew when Shitahe had challenged her. And perhaps he hadn't just said 'yes' to her because he was just being a good friend…

I grabbed a bottle of water and went back to my seat. I yawned…car rides made me tired…I untied my hair from its elastic and let it fall over my shoulders to help ward of the cold air from the vent over my head. Too bad they didn't have those things that let you turn the air of like in planes.

xXx

I sniffed…something smelled nice…it was a smell that I remembered from when I was a little girl…that nice smell that makes you think of home. I snuggled into whatever my head was resting on that smelled so nice. I opened my eyes a crack, rewarded by the blinding glare of the setting sun. I blinked, trying to get the sun-spots out of my eyes.

I gave up, and closed my eyes again. I didn't want to get to the beach soon…being on the bus was so comfortable…this was actually my first time sleeping on a bus, for a fact. All the other times had been on those stupid yellow busses that are uncomfortable to even sit on, and smell really bad. Like old leather or something. I felt myself drift into the peaceful realms of sleep again.

I yawned—I was thirsty again. I felt for the water bottle by my side from earlier and opened my eyes to unscrew the cap, looking directly into Sasuke's face. I swear I could _feel_ my face turn red. So that's what had smelled so good—I'd been resting my head on his shoulder. I was thankful he wasn't wearing that nasty axe stuff that all the guys at my old school used to wear—I was allergic to it. (A/N: Axe smells like ass. Disagree? Too bad. growl but seriously, _does _it smells like crap)

"So you're awake, huh?" He was blushing slightly too. He was wearing black t-shirt with a black and red fan on it—the Uchiha symbol, Tenten had told me. On the bottom, he had navy coloured swimming trunks and flip-flops. His bottomless eyes stared into my green ones.

I felt my face go redder. I nodded, too shy to say anything.

He gave me an embarrassed sort of grin. "I didn't want to wake you up."

I smiled, "It's okay…and sorry for sleeping on you…I hope Shitahe doesn't murder me when we get back."

He shook his head, "What she doesn't know won't hurt her…Besides, we broke up just before I came."

I gave him a shocked look. Then I looked away, embarrassed; I didn't want to meddle in his private affairs. "So…where'd Tenten go?" I looked back at him, desperate for a change of subject.

He pointed around the edge of his seat at her. "She went to play cats cradle with Ino when she woke up, but I didn't have anywhere to sit, so she told me to come over here beside you."

I frowned slightly, "Then where's Shikamaru?"

"He's talking to Kiba," he said, "And Jin's over with Chouji," he added before I could ask anything more.

I blushed again. "Sorry…"

"Hn, don't worry, but are you normally this inquisitive?"

"Umm…" I blushed more, "Not really…maybe it's because I just woke up."

He smiled, "I feel sorry for Tenten in the morning then."

I realized what I'd just said was…odd. I didn't really know if I asked a lot of questions when I woke up, either because I didn't notice, or because her stupid alarm clock put me in too bad of a **mood** to ask anything. I wasn't sure if what I'd told him was true. I smiled at him again as an excuse for not talking and looked out the window.

The sun set—and judging by this, we'd run into traffic. I looked at my watch…Quite a lot of it, actually. We should have been at the beach about three hours ago if it took six hours to get to it. I yawned…how long had I been sleeping on his shoulder? I could remember waking up once, when I'd first noticed the smell. That had been when the sun was just setting…maybe an hour ago. But before that…It felt like my brain was trying to escape.

I gave up and leaned back in my seat, careful not to lean onto him again.

"Alright Kiddies! We're here!" Anko stood up, a grin on her face, and pressed a button. Clod air jutted out onto us from all sides—she'd put the air conditioning on full blast. I yelped and jumped to my feet, grabbing my duffle bag.

Perhaps making everyone wear their bathing suits on the bus just for this purpose had been the teachers' intentions all along…either way I was going to get off…and fast. I ran off into the fresh night air after Tenten, closely followed by Sasuke. Naruto somehow managed to trip on his way down the single step off, and went sprawling, landing flat on his face.

"N-naruto-kun!" Hinata ran over to help him up.

"Pfft, dobe." Sasuke snickered at him, and walked over to help to. I followed him. "Did you not notice that you had to step up to get on or something?"

Ino slapped him on the arm jokingly. "Sasuke! Don't be so mean! You know how Naruto is."

"Hn…" He threw his bag over his shoulder after helping Naruto stand and walked away.

Naruto made an annoyed noise in his throat, "Stupid Sasuke-teme always has to act like such a _cool guy_ or something. Does he really think he's that high above us?"

xXx

"AND DON'T PEEK, YOU PERVERT!" Ino punched Naruto backwards and slammed the door shut. Having absentmindedly followed us to the changing rooms, I suppose he'd gotten what he deserved. Ino packedquite a punch in her arm…Naruto was probably lying somewhere outside dazed.

I grabbed my pajamas from my bag and put them on, throwing a big sweater on top, as it was getting cool outside. I frowned, "Tenten, you know how we're going to be here for a week?"

"What about it?"

"Well what are we going to do the entire time?"

She frowned, "Actually I have no clue. The sensei's will probably have something planned out for us though."

I brushed my hair and tied it with a red ribbon Ino had given me. I piled all my discarded clothes back into my bag. It was about 7 o'clock, and I was so hungry I could've eaten a horse. Thankfully I could smell food from inside. I waited for Ino to finish changing and grabbed my sleeping bag as she'd done and then walked out into the dark towards a campfire with her.

Sure enough, Naruto lay on the ground some distance away, dazed. Ino poked him in the stomach, "Next time stay with Shikamaru or Kiba or something…that way I won't have to bruise my hand again, baka."

We walked over to the nearest campfire. There were quite a few of them, as each one only fit about ten people around it. Kiba moved over to make room for us on the sand. He handed me two long, thin metal sticks with handles at one end and a pointy thing on the other. They reminded me of mini pitchforks. I passed one down to Ino. He handed me a package of hotdogs.

I gave him a weird look. "What are we supposed to do with these?"

He gave me a weirder look back, "Haven't you ever been camping before Sakura?"

I shook my head. "Too many bugs…my mom hated them, so we never went, and before I came to the academy my parents were never home enough to go with me."

"Hmm, that sucks. Well anyways, have you ever cooked on a fire before?"

"No…"

"Never?"

"Never."

"Well that's just weird."

Ino jabbed him in the stomach with her finger, "Shut up Kiba. I'll help her."

I laughed as Kiba wheezed, the breath knocked out of him.

"It's pretty simple—the biggest thing you have to worry about is burning yourself, but usually new people are too paranoid to burn themselves. It's the veterans you have to worry about, although there are _some_ who just never learn." She stuck her tongue out at Naruto, who had seated himself beside Jin and Hinata on the other side of the fire.

"Anyway, all you do is stick the hotdog on the stick and cook it until you think it's done. Then you get a bun, if you want a bun of course and eat it. It's the best way of eating while you're camping, I'd say." She smiled and stuck the meat onto the pole, sticking it into the flames.

I followed suit, careful not to jab my hand on the pointy end of the pole. I felt someone sit down beside me, and I looked over to see Sasuke sitting there, an already made hotdog in his hand.

"Mind if I sit here?"

I shook my head.

He nibbled the end of his food—I could tell it was still too hot for him to eat it. My back was cold as I watched the meat cook, but it was nice having the heat of the fire on my face. I could smell him again, and mixed with the scent of the fire it made me think of my cottage. In the winter I used to curl up beside my cat beside the fire and sleep. Thinking of it brought back memories…I shook my head to clear the thoughts away, and pulled my hotdog out of the fire.

Judging it done, Kiba me pointed towards a table with bund and condiments on it. I went over and used a bun to pull the meat off of the red-hot piece of metal it had cooked on. I grabbed the ketchup bottle and squeezed it. The bottle protested with a loud 'SQUELCH' as the tomato paste came squirting out. I forked some lettuce on, and went back to sit at the bench.

I let the food cool for a bit…Ino was right. I was too paranoid about burning myself to actually get a chance to do it. I watched Ino pull a blackened sausage out of the fire, laughing. (A/N: Okay, I know sausages and hotdogs are two different things, but I feel like I'm using 'hotdog' too much, okay?) I thought she'd forgotten about it until and asked me what I was laughing at. Apparently eating burnt food was something she did often…

xXx

Shikamaru had pulled out a guitar from somewhere, and everyone was singing at our little campfire. I noticed that the campfires were spaced just far enough apart that we could have music and not disturb one of the other groups, but not so far that the teachers, who had their own campfire weren't able to keep an eye on all of us.

I dug my toes into the sand. He played the guitar quite skillfully—he probably took lessons. I looked up to the sky, and let out a small gasp. It was _nothing_ like the city. A vast view filled with little twinkling stars, and a crescent moon. Now I didn't regret at all having to sit in the bus for so long, even though it wasn't a bad bus to sit in for long trips.

In the city only a few of the brighter stars and the moon were visible because of the light from the buildings. Out here, the only light at all was from a small lantern one of the teachers has put to let everyone know where the bathrooms were, and from the fire. But the fires gave off a nice light, and you could hardly see the lantern it was so tiny.

I leaned back onto the sand, not caring, for once, if any got into my hair. Sasuke leaned back next to me. "Know any of the constellations?" he whispered, "I heard this is your first time camping."

"Nope. Only what I learned from those little kids books, about the different types of stars. I used to read a lot of those things when I was like…ten."

He laughed at my comment and pointed directly up at four stars shaped into a sort of box. His hand moved to the left of the four stars to point to three other ones. "See those ones?"

I nodded.

"That's the big dipper; Ursa Major. Most of the constellations depend on the direction you face, and the time of year to see them, but you can see that one most of the time, because it's so bright and big."

"Cool," I said softly. I laughed quietly, "It does look like a dipper…or some kind of ladle at least."

"And that one's Cassiopeia." His hand moved from the left of the big dipper over, higher to five stars shaped like some sort of giant 'w'. "A lot of them are based off of Greek and Roman myths of sorts. I'll show you some books on them when we're back at the academy."

"Really? Thanks" I smiled, and moved closer to him subconsciously. I felt a chill run down my spin. It was cool lying on the sand, but I didn't want to go back to the fire. I looked at the sky…it was such a deep colour…black, but broken up by happy little twinkles of the stars. It was my turn to share some facts, "Did you know there are more stars in the universe than there are grains of sand in the earth?"

"Really? That's insane." I saw him scoop up a handful of white sugary sand from the beach. "That's really weird…he looked at the handful. But there's got to be hundreds of thousands of grains…in my hand! And this beach stretches down like…almost 5 miles!" he whistled. "I feel very insignificant," he remarked.

I laughed, and watched him let the sand fall back onto the beach. By the fire, I heard Ino begin singing to Shikamaru's guitar.

"_Wishing on a dream that seems far off  
Hoping it will come today  
Into the starlit night  
Foolish dreamers turn their gaze  
Waiting on a shooting star_"

I leaned up slightly, watching Ino sing. She had a pretty voice. Maybe I'd look into the singing and instrument classes when we got back to the Academy.

"_But  
What if that star is not to come?  
Will their dreams fade to nothing?  
When the horizons darkens most  
We all need to believe there is hope_

_Is an angel watching closely over me?  
Can there be a guiding light I've yet to see  
I know my heart should guide me but  
There's a hole within my soul_

_What will fill this emptiness inside of me?  
Am I to be satisfied without knowing?  
I wish is then for a chance to see  
Now all I need  
Is my star to come..._"

The song ended, and I clapped. Ino grinned at me, and did an awkward kind of curtsy-bow from where she sat on the ground. It looked like she was tipping over to scoop up sand in her mouth or something. I laughed. Sasuke sat up.

"Any next calls for songs?" Shikamaru's voice broke the silence that had come after the last song had ended. When no one called out, he shrugged and began to play another, more up-beat song, this time with no one singing. I moved closer to Sasuke, "You should sing!" I whispered to him.

He turned a bright red, visible on his pale face in the light from the fire, "As if, Sakura. I sound like a dying cow whenever I try to sing. I tried out for choir when I was little, and the teacher told me it'd be easier to teach Shitahe how to use polite manners when she talks."

I snorted, "You're that bad, huh?"

"Yup," he whispered, "But don't let anyone know, okay?"

"Don't worry, I won't."

Someone walked behind us, and placed a mug of hot chocolate in my hand. Anko winked at me, and put one in Sasuke's hand before walking back to the teachers' fire. I stared at her back. She'd winked! I mentally stuck my tongue out at her, and turned my attention back to the fire. The wood was starting to burn down now, and it was chilly.

I sipped my drink, scalding my tongue. I blew on it to cool it off before trying to drink again. I laughed as Naruto took a big swig of his and spat it all over the sand when his mouth burned.

"Dobe," I heard the raven-haired boy beside me mutter, "What, did he think? Someone gave him _cold_ chocolate?"

I laughed quietly. Sasuke's cynical sense of humor reminded me of someone, but I just couldn't put my finger on who it was. I shrugged inwardly and looked through the dying fire at Ino. She was leaning on Shikamaru's shoulder again, but this time very much awake. I smiled, she looked to peaceful. Maybe all the singing had tired her out or something.

It was quiet without the guitar (Shikamaru couldn't really play with a cup of something in his hand), but it was a nice silence, not an awkward one…maybe it was because of the crackles coming from the fire. I felt my eyes beginning to droop. I covered my legs with my sleeping bag when I felt goose bumps begin to take over my skin.

I felt Sasuke stand up and grab something, laying it out on the sand before sitting down again. It was his sleeping bad. I lay back to look at the stars again. I didn't know what my mom could possibly say was wrong about camping…this was the freest I'd ever felt in my life. I heard the guitar start up again. Shikamaru had placed his drink on the sand…apparently he hadn't enjoyed the silence very much. Maybe it was too troublesome for him to simply listen to the sound of the fire.

The song was quiet—like a lullaby. I sat up slightly to finish off the last dregs of my hot chocolate before lying back again. A white streak ran across my vision, flying from the right to the left and disappearing almost as quickly as it had come…a shooting star. I smiled; it was my first time ever seeing one.

I can't really remember falling asleep, but the last thing I remembered before waking up in the morning was seeing that star…maybe I should have wished for something…

* * *

**Holy shizolies. That was the longest chapter I've ever written…seriously, doods. Anyway, hope you enjoy, reviews are loved! haha, you can tell I was all hyper at the beginning and then died down at the end :p**

**Oh yeah, I changed a bunch of other things, Rach, so if you think it's bad, slap me at school or something XD**

**Citree**


	5. Forehead Vs Pig

**omg…sorry for the freaking long update, but I sort of lost inspiration for a while there. Oh well, I've regained it, but to keep myself from doing it again, I'll try and move the updates to weekly instead of like every two days. Sorry for any angry thoughts or such about this, but I can't help it…**

**Thankies for Beta-ing, Rayray XD**

_Enunciated stuff_

REALLY ENUNCIATED STUFF

"Speech"

(A/N:)

**Chapter 5:

* * *

**

For the second time less than 24 hours, I awoke with that comforting smell floating around me. I snuggled deeper into my sleeping bag, not wanting to get up into the brisk morning air. I felt a warm breath on my neck, and a shiver went down my spine.

I whipped around to find Sasuke's head behind mine, his sleeping bag half thrown open. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up—he'd scared the crap out of me. Apparently waking up next to someone breathing down your shirt isn't something that I was used to. I sighed and rubbed a hand over my face, laughing inwardly; in my shock, I'd gotten myself up anyway. I looked around. Naruto was stretched out, his sleeping bag thrown open, snoring quite loudly.

I sat up higher and stretched…sleeping on the sand was more comfortable than I though it would be. It was like those weird mattresses that like…molded themselves to the shape of your body, except the sand was cooler, and there was the salty smell of the sea every time you breathed in. I looked out over the sea…the sun had just risen, and there were still hints of red and purple drifting among the clouds that were floating on the horizon.

I stood and walked over to the changing rooms, pulling on a sheer skirt over my swimsuit instead of the pants. I took off my sweater and pulled arm warmers on to keep my arms from being cold. I didn't really care if I looked weird—it wasn't like anyone would be up at this time in the morning anyway.

The water felt warm on my toes…well warmer than what I was used to swimming in anyway. The only lake back at my old town had been so cold that every time I went in, my lips turned blue in ten minutes.

I bent down to pick up a seashell, and washed it free of sand when a wave came rushing back up the shore. I ran a finger over its edge. It was a pretty pink and purple colour, and almost completely smooth. Waves washed sugary white sand over my toes, as I watched a flock of birds fly over the sea.

I turned back towards the teachers' circle, but they were all still asleep. I laughed to myself; Anko looked exactly the same as Naruto, and Kakashi was wrapped up so tightly in his sleeping bag he looked like a worm with a bushy silver moustache or something. Walking back to beside where Sasuke lay, I opened my sleeping bag and grabbed my watch. It was about 9 o'clock, so everyone should be getting up soon. I caught something moving out of the corner of my eye and turned to see the raven-haired Uchiha beside me waking up.

He leaned up and rubbed his eyes tiredly, yawning. He looked at me, "You up already?"

I nodded, laughing inwardly at him; his hair, normally so neat in its spiky doo was all stuck in weird directions, and one particularly rebellious strand in the middle of his head stuck straight up in the air. Maybe his hair was like what happened to mine if I didn't use conditioner and blow-dry it after a shower; a will strong enough to defy gravity.

"S'anyone else up?" he rubbed his left eye, the right one staring at me, half closed with sleep.

"Nope. Even all the teachers are sleeping."

He stood up, and attempted to put his hair back into order. Walking to the changing room, he muttered tiredly, "I'm just gonna go change into something."

"Okay…?" And he had to tell me that because…? I cast the though aside and walked back over to the ocean. I crouched down and watched a couple of brightly coloured minnows swimming around the shallow waters, buffeted around every so often by the current and undertow. When one unfortunate fish ended up stranded on the back, I smiled and flicked it back into the water with the shell I still held in my hand. The minnows were nice, and pretty in their own way, but I was too freaked out by fish to touch one with my hand.

Sasuke sat down beside me. He had changed back into his swim suit from yesterday, and another Uchiha symbol t-shirt, this time a dark shade of violet. His hair dripped from places, and the neck of his shirt was wet—he'd probably stuck his head into a sink to try and get his hair to flatten out.

We sat there in silence for a few minutes. "If you don't mind me asking…why did you break up with Shitahe?" I blurted out suddenly. I blushed…Should I have asked something like that?

"I don't mind…it's just…well I never really liked her in the first place, and I was getting fed up with having to be with her all the time when she never did anything for me. I would have done it sooner, but her brother, Keiji kept threatening to strangle me."

"So that's who that weird dude is that's always around her!" that pale face had often been on my mind ever since seeing him for the first time. Hah, I told myself as his face faded from my mind. Now I knew who he was.

He nodded, "And I always found them together, so I never got the chance to end it with her."

"That sucks…"

He laughed quietly, "Well actually since it's over now, I don't have to worry about her again, do I?"

"I guess not, "I remarked with my eyebrows raised. Why was I acting so stupid all of a sudden? I sighed inside and looked out over the sea again. My stomach made a loud grumbling noise.

Sasuke looked at me in surprise, a smile on his face, "Hungry?"

I laughed, having said the same thing to him before. "A little bit."

"Me too. Let's go bug one of the teachers…but I'd prefer it not be Anko…she's as grouchy as Naruto if you wake her up before she says you can."

xXx

"AAAIIIIIIIIIIIII!" I gulped down a glass of orange juice, nearly choking myself in the process, but my mouth wouldn't stop burning. I stuffed a piece of toast in my mouth, and made the mistake of biting again into a part that had that weird 'ketchup' on it. I yelped and dove for the water pitcher, choking down more liquid. Ino thumped her hand on my back, trying to help me swallow.

"Jeez! Breathe woman!"

My eyes let tears run down my cheeks of their own accord, as if to express how much the sauce had burned. I coughed and gulped down another glass of orange juice. Handed to my by Tenten. "W-what was _that_!" I managed to blurt out from between swallows.

Sasuke grabbed the bottle that I'd mistaken as ketchup and read the label. "Anko's special extra hot Tabasco sauce." His eyebrows rose, and he continued, "Home brewed with the best chili peppers in the world."

My eyes continued to tear. "Well that cleared my nose!"

Everyone laughed, and Anko came over, grabbing the bottle from Sasuke's hand. "Well unless any more of you want to go through the same as her, you'd better stay away from my sauces, okay?"

I nodded my head vigorously, only making everyone around laugh harder. Owwww…I felt like ripping my tongue out of my head and scrubbing the nasty off with sand… Sasuke clapped his hand on my back.

"You okay?"

I nodded, eyes still watering. "I think I'll live…"

Naruto laughed, "Remember when I tried that stuff a couple years ago?"

Ino rolled her eyes, "When your throat swelled up because you had too much and you had to go to the hospital ward for a week?"

"N-naruto-kun was al-llergic to it, w-weren't you?" Hinata asked, her white eyes looking at him in a concerned way.

He gave us a foxy grin, thumbs up, "But I survived!"

I laughed; he was the type of person who didn't really even take potential death seriously. "But why would you drink it in the first place, Naruto?" I asked.

He rubbed a hand on the back of his head. "Shitahe told me I couldn't do it."

Sasuke rolled his eyes, "Dobe…" He turned to me, "Most of the things that happen around here are because of her."

"Hah, at least I didn't date her for two years, _Sasuke-teme_!"

The raven-haired boy whipped around and bopped the whiskered blonde on the head, "Shut up, dobe."

Naruto rubbed his head, and narrowed his eyes at Sasuke. (A/N: You know, those squinty eyes he always gets when he's annoyed :D) "Hmph," he muttered, turning away from the Uchiha, an air of distaste around him.

Anko walked back over to us, "You guys done eating?"

Everyone nodded, except for Chouji who was still shoveling down toast and eggs. The sensei rolled her eyes, "Well everyone else can go and throw their plates away, and get ready for today. Make sure you have your bathing suits on. And you Chouji, _hurry up and finish eating_."

I walked over to the change rooms with Ino to put my arm warmers away. Now that the sun was full overhead, I didn't think I'd need them anymore. I grabbed a green clip from my bag that matched my eyes and used it to keep my hair out of my face. The wind had picked up, and it was beginning to get a little annoying.

Ino put a light jacket on over her bathing suit, leaving her hair down for once. She grabbed a tiny clip and pulled a piece of hair from the middle-top part of her head to keep it out of her face, and walked out the door. I followed, goose bumps running down my arms. Maybe keeping the arm warmers would have been good?

xXx

"Oiii! Sakura-chan! You gonna come in?"

"No silly, she ate too much breakfast, and she's afraid she's gonna sick."

"I **do** not!" I splashed salty water onto the face of the offender—a grinning Ino. "The water's just…"

"What? Too wet?" Ino stuck her tongue out and splashed me back.

I scowled and jumped in. Picture an inexperienced swimmer jumping into the deep end of a pool. Got that in your head? Now picture that someone as me, despite the fact that I knew how to swim quite well. Somehow I managed to swallow a large amount of salt water, and began coughing. Struggling to breathe, and keep my face clear of more water, while treading at the same time was too much, and I began to sink. A hand wrapped around my waist, helping to keep me afloat so I could clear the liquid from my windpipe. I looked to my side, eyes watering to find Sasuke treading water…_his_ hand around my waist.

I felt my face go a brilliant shade of red, and forced myself to stop coughing.

"You okay?"

"I-I think s-so." I blushed more and mentally slapped myself several times. How _could_ I be so dimwitted? Jumping into the water and swallowing half the ocean the first time I go under! I knew how to swim! Maybe my brain was having spazzes.

"Oi, you _sure_ you know how to swim, Saku?"

I made a face at Ino and splashed her again. "If I didn't know how, then how could I be here right now?"

I received a cackle from her, "Because Sasuke's holding you?"

I felt the hand around my waist go stiff, "You okay now?" I nodded. Sasuke removed his hand, and I treaded water on my own, thankfully managing not to inhale anymore salty water. (A/N: omg…salt water tastes like _crap_ if you've ever accidentally drank it or something while swimming)

"You seriously sure?" Ino said to me in a mocking fake baby-voice.

"YES INO! I'M SURE!"

She gave me another evil grin, "Then I'll race you over to the flag pole!"

"You're on!"

Tenten, floating nearby on a noodle rolled her eyes, "You guys are _so_ immature. You know that?"

I grinned and nodded.

"Well woohoo to you then, my absent-minded friend." She waited until we were lined up, and waved a piece of driftwood in the air as some sort of make-shift flag.

I giggled as Neji ducked to avoid being clubbed in the head by the wood. He narrowly avoided it the first time, by ducking under the water. The second time, he was forced to make some sort of waterlogged Matrix move to avoid being hit. Neji, normally so prim and proper waving his arms about and flailing in the water to avoid being clobbered by a piece of rotting wood…I couldn't help but smile. Tenten unknowingly continued to wave the stick about, waiting for Ino to tie up her hair.

"On your marks, get so, GO!"

"Huh?"

"Sakura! Hurry up! Ino started already…this is so troublesome…" Shikamaru gave me a push in the back, and I started off.

Treading water was and still is one of my weaker spots in swimming. I felt my joy for swimming return when I began to kick my legs froggie style…but Ino was still ahead of me. Not by far though, as I caught up after a few strokes. Maybe I should have given her a longer head-start on me…she sure wasn't one of the strongest swimmer's I'd ever seen.

Despite this, Ino still turned to me with a grin, "Sinking yet?"

My regret of a longer head-start vanished instantly. "Oh yeah? Well at least the current isn't pulling me alongunlike _someone_ I know!" I retorted sarcastically.

"Hah, as if. I was waiting for you to catch up so we could actually start from the same point!" And with that, her strokes strengthened…but not by much. I found myself ahead of her by about a meter within a couple of seconds.

I can't help it, but gloat. If there was something in the world I'd ever have Ino challenge me to again, it would _not_ be swimming.

xXx

"Okay! Listen up everybody! Today's activity is a scavenger hunt! But not only that, it's underwater! After you get all your snorkeling gear, we'll give you your maps, and make your pairs!" Anko's cheery voice rang out over the beach, startling a few of the seagulls nearby. "Come on people! We don't have all day!" She threw a tennis ball from somewhere at the back of a slowly walking Shikamaru's head.

"OI!" He stumbled, his hands trapped in his pockets, kept from helping him keep his balance. He tumbled over, and sat in the sand, frowning at his widely grinning teacher. "Owww…Sensei is so troublesome…"

"Well then hurry up!"

He grumbled something under his breath and stood up, walking towards the snorkels at a much faster pace. I swore I heard Anko and several other teachers laugh quietly at him, but when I looked, no one was.

"Here, try this one for size." Tenten handed me a snorkel mask and flippers.

I slipped the mask over my head, and found it slightly too tight. "Too small."

She took the mask, and slid one of the clasps at the side open farther, then handed it back to me. I tried it back, and found it was fine. The flippers fit too, so I made my way back to where the teachers stood.

Ino was already there, a mask perched upon her head like a large disfigured hat or something.

"Hmm…I wonder how they're going to make the teams this time…" Ino looked at Anko, who was busy fiddling with something behind her back.

I dropped myself down onto the sad beside her, "I don't really care, as long as I'm with someone I know, and not some random guy from somewhere I've never even seen before."

Ino laughed, "They'd never do that. But sometimes you're with people you don't like very much, that wouldn't make a very good team or something."

I snorted, "The only person in the entire world 'I don't like very much' is Shitahe, and she's not even here. And why wouldn't someone make a very good team?"

"Well…there are some people who don't listen, or something just as bad."

I looked at her expectantly, but nothing else came out of her mouth, she simply flicked her head towards the teachers, as Anko was talking again.

"Well, now since all of you are here, let's make these teams, shall we?" She pulled out a toy bucket from behind her back—she'd been fiddling with it before. "This has the names of all of the boys here. Since there are an even number of guys and girls, then the girls will each come up one at a time and choose a name. No swapping, though! Once you get your name, Kakashi-sensei will be right here ready to write it down, okay?"

She looked over to Kakashi, expecting a nod or noise of some sort from him, but he was silent. She gritted her teeth and swung the bucket into his head. He finally nodded, visible eye making that same annoyed from that Shikamaru had had on his face.

"Okay! Now come and line up!"

I shall admit this now. Despite the fact that Anko was one of my favorite teachers, she often acted as though we were only 8 years old or something, while all of us here were at least twice that, or older. I sighed, and got to my feet, standing behind Hinata.

"W-who do y-you think y-you'll be t-teamed up w-with, Sakura?"

"No clue, but I hope it's not that guy," I muttered, pointing to a guy with a black bowl cut and an ugly green Speedo who had winked at me in return.

Hinata gave a quiet laugh, "T-that's Lee…Rock Lee. He m-may seem really w-weird at first, b-but he's actually r-really nice."

"You know him?" I looked at her in surprise.

"N-not really that w-well, b-but he _was_ in two of my c-classes last year."

"Well if you think he's nice, then he must be, huh?" I was just going by my gut, as Hinata wasn't really that open and friendly around any guys she didn't know.

"S-sorta…"

"Sakura, pick a name!"

Ino nudged my back, and pointed towards Anko, who was holding the brightly coloured plastic bucket out in front of her like an insane offering to some sort of God.

I took a breath and reached my hand in, shuffling around the folded papers before deciding on one and pulling it out. I closed my eyes and opened the paper.

"Sakura! You got him!"

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**Bwahaha, another cliffhanger :p please don't kill me...oh, and if anyone found trouble submitting reviews that were unauthorized, I checked, and it was set to off. I fixed it, so they should work now. Sorry about that --;;**

**Reviews are loved,**

**Citree**


	6. Clues in the Coral

**Blaah. slapped You know, I just realized while writing this, that kicking froggy style while wearing flippers is…difficult..so like…I'm not surrreee…. :p**

**Beta-er: Rachel**

**Chapter six: Clues in the Coral

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"Sakura! You got him!" Ino said aloud again, and made a sympathetic face, and showed the paper in her hand to me "I'm stuck with Shikamaru. He won't even want to get his lazy ass into the water, never mind search for something." Ino clapped me on the back, "Well good luck!"

I smiled half-heartedly, "And to you too."

Hinata peered over my shoulder at the paper clutched in my hand, "I'm s-sure you'll b-be fine, S-sakura."

"Who do you have?" I looked over at Hinata's paper.

"Naruto-kun."

"Lucky… He's actually someone that's not going go spazz at you about everything."

"Actually he probably will, "She replied. And then added, a quiet, "But I don't mind." Before wandering off to find the whiskered blonde.

I looked at my paper again, and clapped a hand to my forehead. Why couldn't I have shuffled around more in that stupid bucket! Why?

I looked at the crown of people, and right before my eyes, a skinny figure bounded towards me, his spinach coloured Speedo glinting in the sun. His shiny black bowl of hair swished around in a non-existent wind. My left eye involuntarily began to twitch. He looked at me, and leaned back on one leg, stretching his arm out with a 'thumbs up' and grinning ear to ear. I swear I could hear a 'PING' along with it, as his blindingly white teeth glinted in the sunset. Wait a second…sunset?

I shook my head in disbelief, and closed my eyes. Opening them again, I saw to my relief that the sunset was gone…but…I sighed and felt my inner self die as the weird looking boy in the horrifying Speedo didn't vanish along with the setting sun. He was beginning to seem like a spot on a window—no matter how hard you wipe and try and scrub it off, it just seems to come back every time you look. I raised a hand to my forehead, and somehow managed to look him in the eye without letting out some weird noise or something.

"I guess I'm going to be you're—" I began, but before I could finish, a hand grabbed my left hand, and pulled me around, back to over where the teachers were. Speedo-man followed the both of us too. I looked ahead, to see the spiky raven hair of Sasuke. I frowned. What _was_ he doing?

"Anko-sensei, can I talk to you for a minute?"

"Sure." She followed the Uchiha along the rest of us.

"I'm sure you know Sakura's new to the school this year," he told her. I looked down at my wrist and noticed that my hand was still clenched in his. I blushed slightly at this, and turned back to what he was saying to the sensei.

"Well I was thinking, because she's new, maybe could I be her partner instead?"

"Well…" She looked over to a short, skinny girl with teal coloured hair and large violet eyes. "Do you agree with this, Sage?"

"Yes, Sensei. I'd rather be with Lee, because I don't know Sasuke-kun very well…"

"Fine then. But only because Sakura's new, and you all agree." She turned to walk away, but I swear I saw her wink at me as she did. I shuddered inside, and walked stiffly off after Sasuke. What did she mean by that?

I caught up with Sasuke. I grabbed his hand with the same hand that he'd grabbed before. "Why did you do that?"

He stopped, looking first at my hand, and then at my face, "Well I'm not sure actually." The look he gave me was slightly confused, but sincere all the same. "Random impulse, I suppose. Why? Did you want to be with Lee?"

I shuddered, "Oh god no, but it was just…random." I paused, the silence sinking in around us slightly awkwardly. "Well…" I started.

"I guess we'd better grab the map, huh?" he finished the sentence for me, smiling. "Besides, Sage sort of scares me sometimes. And I think she sort of has a crush on Lee…that's why she wanted to go with him. You know, most of the girls I've met are too freaked out by his weirdness to even go near him.

I blushed, and smiled slightly back, tucking a stray strand of hair behind my ear. "Yup." I replied, and walked beside him over to where Kakashi-sensei was stretched out in a beach chair. The maps were piled beside him, giving him the appearance of someone on a holiday that still needed to finish stacks and stacks of paperwork, but didn't quite feel like doing it just then. "Kakashi-sensei, may we have a map?"

He opened his visible eye, and looked at me. "Sure. Just take one, and then you're free to start when Anko-sensei says so. But don't start before that or she'll chew your heads off, okay?"

We began to walk away, when he called at our backs, "But don't even bother trying to follow anyone else, because all the maps are different, so you'll just get lost."

I turned around, gave him a salute and continued walking. That was a good thing to know, after all.

xXx

"So… We have to find a what?"

"Another clue."

"…"

"…"

"Why?"

"No clue…"

I sighed and slapped my hand against my face. "We're getting nowhere…" I looked to the boy beside me, who was staring intently at the map and instructions, as if they were suddenly going to talk to him and give him an answer of some sort.

"Well…I guess we'd better start following the map, and then see if we can find something, huh?" he stood and offered a hand to help me up. I blushed slightly, and grabbed it, finding myself pulled to my feet in a split second.

"So where's the start point?" I looked over to the map he was holding, but no brightly marked starting point or red 'X' seemed to jump out at me.

"Actually…I have no clue about that either," He said, an embarrassed look plastered on his face, "But I guess following the clues might help…" He handed me the map, pointing to an inscription in the top right corner.

"_Follow the path,_

_Though weathered it be_

_And at the end_

_Dive in to find me_

_But in haste _

_Do not look_

_At only the surface_

_Judge not the cover, _

_But the book_

_As for the start_

_I run under your feet_

_Like a timeless piece of art_

_Time I've yet to meet_

_Hidden I might be_

_But look and I won't_

_Come on and find me_

_Waste time you don't_

_Swim twenty to the west_

_Then cut it in half_

_And swim that to the south lest_

_You be led off the path"_

"What…the heck. Seriously…what the heck… Does that last line even make any sense to you?" I looked up from reading the page to see Sasuke's face even more confused. I groaned and walked over to the edge of an old dock, sitting on the railing. Sasuke followed me, brow furrowed.

Maybe brain teasers and problems like this one were an interesting challenge for him, but for me, they were no more than something else to make my brain try and run away. I saw him move from several places around the beach. He grabbed my hand again. I jumped off the rail and followed him, wherever he was going…which appeared to be where Shikamaru and Ino were diving off the end of the dock.

"How come we're following them?" I frowned…they didn't even have the same map as us!

"We're not. We're following the path."

"Path…?" I looked down at the dock beneath me. Well…I guess it could be considered a path. In a really weird sort of way… I looked at the writing in the corner of the map. "So this is the weathered path?"

He nodded, slipped a flipper on to one of his feet.

"And we dive in at the end?"

Another nod, and the other flipper put on was my reply.

I sat down beside Sasuke and put my flippers on. "I never was any good at the riddles, you know. I'm glad you are." I stuck my tongue out at him, grinned and pulled my mask on, jumping into the water.

xXx

I sighed, and pulled myself back onto the end of the dock. We'd been out the entire day, and I was getting near ready to collapse on the beach.

"What is this? The fifth freaking clue!" I muttered to an equally exhausted Sasuke, who was lying on the dock beside me. He leaned up and counted the folded pieces of paper scattered around us on the weathered wood.

"Nope, seventh. But thankfully this is the last one." He smiled and pulled his mask back on top of his head.

"_Last clue forever_

_You'll find me I'm sure_

_So be sure to put in effort_

_Or you'll be back to where you were_

_I'm pretty colours - violet, blue_

_Not so hard to spot_

_I'll be lying in the open water_

_You won't have to look a lot_

_Swim to the south_

_A little to the west_

_Ten strokes up_

_Five strokes are the rest_

_Good Luck!"_

Sasuke looked up from reading, "Well at least it's not a wild goose chase like the rest of the clues were…seriously. Clues to find other clues! What kind of scavenger hunt is that?"

"No clue…it's more of a treasure hunt, isn't it?" I stretched my legs out, and jumped back into the water. Despite the fact that I'd been swimming for far longer than I would ever have swam before, it was beautiful. Rays of sunlight shot through the water, bouncing off the scales of brightly coloured tropical fish. Every here and there, patches of coral were scattered about, fish swimming all around them. Once I even saw a turtle, but it swam away too quickly for me to go up to it.

I'd always wanted to try one of those 'swim with the dolphins' things, but Sasuke said that they were out too far at sea to do it here. If they got trapped when the tide went out, they'd probably die. But swimming in the reefs was nice.

I looked ahead of me at Sasuke. His hair looked even funnier underwater than it had when he'd woken up that morning. Whenever he paused to use the clue as a reference (did I mention they were laminated to keep them water-free?) little fish about the size f my pinky finger would swim all around him, as if looking for a home or something. Thankfully one of the bigger ones hadn't come along yet. I laughed at the thought.

Turning to the west according to the miniature compass tied around a strap on my bathing suit, I kicked five times, and looked down. The clue had said that the sea-star would be purple and blue—and out in the open. It shouldn't be too hard to find.

I surfaced and looked over to Sasuke, who poked his head above the water too. "So… We have to put in effort to find something out in the open that's purple and blue this time?"

"Apparently. I'll cover the right side, okay?" He answered.

I nodded and took a deep breath before diving back under the shimmering surface. Kicking to the bottom, I used my hands to fan away the sugary white sand from things half buried on the bottom. I discovered a coupled of rocks, and an angry old crab, but nothing purple and blue. I surfaced again for air and found Sasuke already swimming above the surface. He beckoned to me, and I swam over.

"I think I found something, but you'll have to help me with it."

I nodded, and followed him to the bottom. Sure enough, there was a purple and blue marking—attached to a much bigger object. I fanned some of the sand away to discover that the purple and blue abject was part of a much larger something. I grabbed it by a notch at the side when Sasuke did, and pushed off of the sand. We bobbed to the surface, the—wooden box floating along behind. Wooden box! The sand on top of his had been keeping it from floating, I guess.

"So that entire hunt was for…a box?" I gave him a confused look, and helped tow the box to the end of the dock. He climbed up, and I gave the box to him. He put the box down, and offered a hand to help me out of the water. I blushed and took it. "Thanks, "I mumbled, sitting down on the dock.

I leaned back on my hands, drying off in the heat of the setting sun. Sasuke sat down beside me, looking out over the horizon. Fluffy cotton-ball clouds dyed pink from the sun floated about the sky, chasing each other in the warm breezes blowing off the ocean.

I closed my eyes, letting the sun warm me up. In the water it was warm, but out of it where the winds could get at you, I was glad to have the sun on me. I opened my eyes again and smiled, "Look!" I leaned over to Sasuke and pointed to one of the clouds. "It looks like a butterfly or something."

He laughed, "I used to sit back outside the Academy with Chouji, Shikamaru and Naruto and skip class to watch the clouds. I probably wouldn't have done it, but Naruto made me."

I grinned, and scuffled closed to point at another cloud. A rabbit-shaped one this time.

We sat there for a few minutes, looking at the clouds, when I realized that the soggy box behind us still hadn't been touched. I turned around and grabbed it. "How do you think it opens?" I asked Sasuke, jerking my head towards a padlock on the side of it.

"Well done!"

I whipped around to see Anko standing behind me, twirling a key on a chain around her finger. She handed me the key, and walked off. I frowned at her for such a random visit, but tried the key anyway. Inside the box were a few two liter cans of pop, and almost a dozen bottles of water, as well as a note.

"_Count to one_

_Then two and three_

_Then join the groups _

_To discover me,_

_You're group five_

_Find six and seven_

_Thirteen, fourteen_

_And eleven."_

"More hunting?" I sighed, and fell back on the dock, looking overhead. What kind of prize was a box of drinks?

"I guess we'd better find the groups then, huh?" Sasuke stood, and picked up the box of beverages in one hand. With his free hand, he pulled me up. We walked back over to where some of the other pairs had gathered.

"What group are you?" I asked Tenten, walking over to her and Neji. Beside them was a box full of paper plates, cups and plastic cutlery, as well as spices and other things.

"Eleven. You?"

"We're five!"

Tenten grinned, and Neji nodded, his usual serious self. "Let's go find the other four groups then."

We walked around, asking various people, but no one was in any of the other groups there. I sighed, and dropped myself down onto the sand. The other groups probably weren't finished yet.

Half an hour later, I found myself standing next to Hinata, Naruto, Jin, Kiba, Shikamaru, Ino, Lee and Sage. Sasuke, Neji and Tenten were gathered around all of the boxes we'd put together.

Everything in the boxed, when split apart had made no sense, but together, there couldn't have been anything plainer; the teachers had planned some sort of luau for us. Altogether, me and Sasuke had brought drinks, Hinata and Naruto a ham (a/n: wtffff), Neji and Tenten plates and flavoring, Lee and Sage vegetables and rice for the side. Shikamaru and Ino had all sorts of biscuits and pastries, and Kiba and Jin had brought a barbeque grill, a wok as well as cooking instructions for the entire mess. (a/n: a wok is an oriental stir-fry cooking thing, which in this circumstance would be used for the vegetables.)

After reading the instructions, we learned that every pair would be responsible for what they'd brought, everyone was horrified. Not because of the fact that it was terribly hard to understand what to do, but because of the fact that Naruto had access to the ham. I didn't even want to think about what might be cooking in a few minutes, so I turned away, and went to pour drinks.

xXx

I looked at my plate suspiciously. The meat looked edible enough, but I wasn't so sure. I looked around to see everyone looking at their plate too. I looked at Naruto, who was busy shoveling down his food, as if there was no tomorrow.

I sucked in my breath, and let it out with a whoosh. Picking up my plate, I took a nibble of the meat. "This is good!" I took another bite. It was even better than the ham that my parents used to make when I was little.

"See? You'll be a great wife someday, Hinata!" Naruto grinned, and gave her foxy thumbs up, before going back to shoveling down his food. Hinata's only response was to promptly turn a violent shade of red and stare intently at her food as if it was going to come to life or something.

I couldn't almost feel tension leave everyone when they learned that Naruto hadn't touched the meat. I watched Neji nervously scoop up a forkful of vegetables from his plate. He sat there for a moment, chewing. It might have been my imagination, but I could swear I saw his face steadily growing a bright shade of red.

"NAAAAANNNNIIIIIII!" he struggled to swallow, and wrapped a hand around his throat frantically grabbing for the glass of pop by his side. He gulped it down, and frantically poured himself another. Tenten thumped him the one back, and looked at him with concern in her honey-coloured eyes.

He grabbed his plate again, and forked all of the vegetables on it into the fire. The flames turned red for a few seconds as the carrots and peppers burned. They turned to ash, and the fire calmed down again, but all the friendly conversations around the fire had stopped. Every eye was on Neji, who was still choking down glasses of liquid. I frowned and looked towards Lee and Sage. Sage shrugged; like Naruto, she'd had nothing to do with the cooking. I narrowed my eyes at Lee, who was sitting on the sand, a hand behind his head, smiling nervously.

He suddenly jumped to his feet, and gave us all a bit thumbs up, along with the trademark grin the he seemed to share with Naruto.

"Lee…" I felt a death-intending stare shoot through the air at Lee from where Neji sat.

"What?" he shrank back slightly from the glare Neji was sending him, but the smiled never left his face.

"WHAT! WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!"

"Believe me, you don't want to know," Sage told him, calmly eating whatever the heck Neji had just thrown into the fire.

I gulped, and looked at my plate. Sasuke looked at me, afraid to try eating it. We both shoveled our helpings of whatever it was into the fire at the same time as everyone else, aside from Lee and Sage. A slight crackle immerged from the fire. Our attention was again brought to fire as it kind of…caved in on itself and burned out…

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**Blahhhhh…. Next chapter contains much fluff, so be warned! mwahaha**

**Citree**


	7. Flight of the Curry

**It's not my fault the update was late! -uncontrolable sobbing-**

**Well…apparently the lack of interest in the last chapter is trying to tell me something… It's saying, "_Citreeeeee, you should go and jump of a rooooooofffffff_."**

**Think not? Review…please? -puppy face- if not, I might be tempted to stop writing this fic…like the last one I was working on and delete everything, or like take a never-ending hiatus or something.**

**And thank you to Rachel (for reviewing and beta-ing) and Kurenai Chinoumi for reviewing the last chapter. I really appreciated it. –glomps you-**

_**Things in italics can mean both inner Sakura, and enunciated words, so watch out, and try not to mix them up :p**_

**Chapter 7: Flight of the Curry

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"Lee. What the hell was that!" Neji repeated, his normally pure white eyes dyed red from the reflection of the fire that we'd just started back up.

"My special recipe!" Lee screeched at the Hyuugaquite proudly from where he sat in the sand, defending his masterpiece, "I made it together with Ranmaru!"

Whoever this 'Ranmaru' person was, I wasn't so sure, but the only thing that mentioning the name did for Lee was make Neji scowl more.

"What the heck did you do to it! I've tasted the stuff the Ranmaru cooks, and it never tasted near as disgusting as whatever this is! At least the stuff he makes is edible!" Neji yelled at the defiant teen across the fire from him. Bathed in the glow from the still crimson flames, to me he looked like some kind of evil demon out to kill. Lee noticed it, and shrank back again, a hand behind his head. He tried to smile, but it was forced; more of a grimace you'd make when in a great deal of pain than a grin.

Lee took his hand away from his head, and waved it with his other hand in front of him, "Well it's not my fault!"

"What's not your fault! You're the one that made it!" Neji growled at the green spandex-clad boy.

"Well there wasn't any curry powder, so I had to use a lot of salt and pepper, and Anko lent me some of her special sauce." Lee's eyes widened, and he ducked. Neji's plate, still full of food came sailing across the scarlet flames, narrowly missing his shiny bowl-cut head.

I exchanged horrified looks with Naruto. Both of us having known the scary consequences of trying Anko's sauce, we were glad to have Neji freak out before we could take a big gulp of the 'curry' Lee had made. I felt sorry for Neji, but for me, it was better for him to earn a burning mouth than me.

My eyes moved over to Sage, who was still calmly sitting down, somehow managing to eat everything on her plate without so much as a watery eye. She gave me a blank look, as if she was trying to blend in with the sand she sat on or something. I looked away, rolling my eyes. Neji might have had a big freak-out at Lee's horrendous cooking skills, but Sage, with the emotional range of almost less that Shino simply sat there, quietly chewing away at the blob of…whatever it was one her plate.

Tenten stood up, her hands on her hips like someone's angry mother, "You got anything else to say to Lee? It's not his fault he hasn't got Ranmaru's cooking skills you know!"

"Yeah!" Neji scowled again at Lee, "Never to become a chef!"

It was Lee's turn to scowl, but before he had the chance to say anything, he was interrupted by a loud,

"Okay! Light's out everyone!" Anko had pulled a megaphone from **no**where and deafened us all. I think she scared the crap out of Hinata, because she was paler than usual, and her eyes were twice the size they normally were from shock.

"Lights? What lights?" I heard Naruto's voice, and turned around just in time to see him receive a hard whack on the head from Anko's megaphone. "OUCH!" Naruto rubbed his head, and scowled at the evilly grinning teacher standing beside him.

"What do you think light's out means, you dobe!" Sasuke bopped him on the head in the exact same spot as Anko, and walked off, hands in his pockets. I laughed along with Tenten as Naruto clutched both of his hands to his head, eyes narrowed at the Uchiha walking away from him. Hinata walked over, an ice pack in her hand from somewhere. She turned red, handed it to him and ran in the other direction.

"And be sure to pack up people, it's gonna rain tomorrow, so we'll have to leave tomorrow night. We're sorry," she gestured to the rest of the teachers gathered around her, "But we'd rather not get sick in the rain and be ill for the rest of the week." She turned to go, but then whipped back around to add something else, "And don't forget! Before we leave is the actually dance part of this whole thing, so…don't forget about it!"

"Aww…that's not fair!" Naruto's voice called again at the fact that we had to leave early, and if by impulse so did the resounding sound of a large object hitting him on the head.

Ino laughed so only I could hear, "It's a good thing his head is so hard!"

I snickered as Naruto clutched the ice-pack Hinata had given him to **soothe** his head once again.

We stood up, and walked over to the change rooms.

The night was warm…too warm. I hadn't noticed the heat during the day because of all the swimming, but it was boiling right now. I pulled on a t-shirt, and a pair of air-knit shorts instead of the fleece pajamas I'd had on the night before. I didn't bother waiting for Ino—she'd be out soon enough, so I walked out into the warm sea breezes.

I was exhausted from the day's events, and not even the filling dinner (missing its vegetables) had done my any good. I yawned, gazing sleepily at the dying fire. Apparently it had taken as much as it could bear, even after being relit from blowing up. It slowly dimmed down until onto glowing coals and bits of ash were left.

I glanced at the watch beside me. It was only 9 o'clock, but I was tired from the day's activities. I stretched, and lay back, looking at the stars again. It would have been nice to talk to Sasuke again, but by the looks of things, he was already asleep, sprawled out on the sand. I closed my eyes, not bothering to cover myself, as I would end up throwing my sleeping bag off again in a minute because of the heat.

xXx

A chilly breeze ran over me, sending shivers down my spine. Maybe putting my sleeping bag on last night would have been a good idea…but then I would have thrown it off. I lay there, eyes closed, contradicting myself until something drew my attention to the real world outside my head.

I was in the middle of rolling onto my side, trying to fall asleep again when someone put their hand on my chest.

SLAP!

An unsuspecting and rudely awakened Sasuke was blasted several feet away on the sand, clutching a stinging cheek. "Oh shit," I muttered, while my inner self simply cried out,_ Smart one, Miss Braniac. You just bitch slapped the Uchiha prodigy. _

"Ohmigod! I'm sorry!" I squeaked and ran over to him.

He looked at me warily; afraid I would slap him again or something.

"Sorry!" I helped him stand, while Ino and Tenten gave me strange looks.

"It's okay…" he said, looking sort of blanked out, a red hand-print on his pale cheek standing out more than I would have liked it to. He probably didn't even know what had happened, having been awakened up so rudely and out of the blue.

"What happened?" A sleepy Kakashi walked over, half of his head and one of his eyes covered by a sleeping cap with the school logo on it.

"No clue, sensei…I just sort of woke up and saw Sasuke go flying, and then Sakura went over to help him stand up." Ino yawned, eyes half closed.

Tenten simply rolled over, and somehow managed to get off of her sleeping bag, swallowing a mouthful of sand. "EEEWWW!" She coughed and ran off to the bathrooms to wash out her mouth. Ino sat there, watching her run, zoned out and half asleep.

"Sasuke! Will you teach me this technique by which you blush on one half of your face?" A disgustingly wide awake Lee sat up on the sand, his hair almost completely covered in sand. "I think it wou—"

"Shut up, bowl-head." Sasuke threw a pillow at his head, knocking him over. Lee, flushing in both cheeks threw it back, but missed, and hit Ino squarely in the face.

"Why you little…" she glared at the green-clad teen in front of her, and grabbed the nearest object to her, sending it zooming straight towards his head. Unfortunately for Lee, and the people on either side of him, (which happened to be Kiba, Shino, Jin and Sage) a large bowl of leftover food from last night's dinner, complete with the horrendous curry came flying across to his Lee in the face, splattering onto everyone around him. Lee grabbed bits of the food, and threw them back at Ino.

Neji took one look at the red-faced blonde and stood up to sit beside me and Sasuke. He'd probably learned long ago that fighting with an enraged Ino was not going to end prettily.

A scarlet-faced Jin splattered with food, flaming hair standing on end pulled out a box from somewhere and whipped it at the blonde girl's head. But thankfully for Ino, Jin's anger had taken away her aim, and it whistled through the air to bounce of Shikamaru's head…too bad for him he was still trying to sleep. The lazy brown-haired teen sat up, probably asking himself why the sky was throwing wooden boxes and food at his head. She scowled at Ino, and grabbed around for something else to throw at her.

"Okay people! Cut it out!" Kakashi waded into the mess of teen, sleeping bags and food, only to get hit in the head by something unidentifiable thrown by Kiba, who was trying to hit Ino. I think it was a gift from Akamaru…but I wasn't really sure.

The grey-topped sensei stood there for a moment, visible eye staring blankly out to sea, the goop on his head, sliding down his drop onto his pristine white pajama top. Or should I say the top that _was_ a pristine white… he didn't even look at Kiba before walking back over to the teacher's circle, face emotionless.

"Oh look, Kiba, _now_ you've done it." Ino taunted, tossing a bombardment of carrots at his head. Several of them bounced off and hit Naruto squarely in the face.

He sat up with a start, asking a rock beside him why it had told the snowmen to throw their noses at him. He had opened his mouth to ask it something else, when the rain of carrots sent over by Ino bulleted inside his mouth. Hinata woke up finding her self staring at Naruto, whose mouth was packed to the brim with carrots, forcing into a half-smile, half-grimace-of-pain sort of face.

Tenten, who had recovered from her unpleasant mouthful of ground up rocks stood beside me and Sasuke, watching our classmates throw food and other close by objects at each other with vengeance. Some, like Ino and Kiba, were directly in the middle of it all, dodging and throwing at the same time, which others, like Shikamaru and Sage, simply sat there, the odd carrot or pepper hitting them.

"YOSH! LET YOUR SPRINGTIME OF YOUTH BURN IN THE VEGETABLES!"

I felt my eyes grow as big as saucers. A thumb stuck out, along with a blinding flash from shiny teeth to make bushy black caterpillar eyebrows and a bowl-cut stand out like a horribly horrible…whatever it was. A piece of something brown came and landed on the side of the newcomer's still stupidly grinning face.

His only response was to grin even wider, picking up a piece of food covered in sand and whip it at Kiba's head.

"GAI SENSEI!" Lee cried out, running over to the older replica of himself, rivers of tears flowing down his food-splattered cheeks, the ocean reflecting the pinks and oranges that a sunset gave off. I slapped a hand over my face, and shut my eyes. I was starting to see things…two sunsets in a row? This couldn't be a good sign.

The two bowl-cut, green-clad freaks dashed back into the fray, fists full of food and…something I couldn't identify.

"OI! OKAY GIRLIES, YOU CAN STOP CLAWING EACH OTHER'S EYES OUT NOW!" Genma walked over, a long piece of grass in his mouth, and an annoyed look on his face. He spat the plant onto Gai's hand when it reached towards another clump of food, and it recoiled back into its original position by his side.

"Hey! I didn't start this!"

"You did too!"

"My eye hurts…"

"Something's stuck in my ear!"

"Yeah? Well too bad!"

"GAI SENSEI!"

"This is troublesome…"

"Akamaru! Don't eat that!"

"LEE!"

"Kaida! Stop biting Lee's leg!"

"My leg!"

I exchanged looks with Sasuke, whose cheek was still a bright shade of red. Apparently Lee hadn't even noticed the angry little rodent attached to his leg until Jin had told Kaida to stop.

"OKAY PEOPLE! BREAK IT UP!" Anko yelled into her megaphone, which had once again appeared out of nowhere. And despite the fact that all three of us standing to the side of the battle field had seen her come, a loud voice at this early in the morning still made us jump.

But it was nothing compared to what everyone throwing their sanity away had done.

Jin refrained from bending Ino's arm further back out of its socket, eyes like bowling balls. Ino stopped struggling and gave her teacher a shocked look. Sage and Shikamaru still sat there, staring blankly, bits of food scattered around and on them. Bits of what looked like Sasuke's pillow covered Kiba and Akamaru from head to toe, while Jin's angry little ferret paused from chewing up Lee's leg. Gai himself sat in the middle of it all, like some big, deformed kid or something.

Naruto, who had poked his head out around the side of the rock when the sound of food being thrown had stopped, vanished from sight when he saw the megaphone in Anko's fist. He probably didn't want to get smacked in the head again because of one of his stupid comments or something.

Anko simply shook her head, motioned for everyone covered in food to clean themselves free of food. Picking her way through the disaster, she grabbed Gai by the ear, pulling him off towards the other teachers, who were sitting on the sand, still in their pajamas laughing. A fountain of tears streamed down Gai's face as a megaphone bearing Anko whacked him on the head.

xXx

"Well, now that we've all cleaned up," Anko gave a disapproving look to Gai and everyone else in on the disaster.

It had taken most of the day for everyone involved in the mess to clean up, and everything still reeked of curry and other food. The smell of dead fish also hung in the air, but I wasn't really sure what it was from.

"EAAAHHH! Ewewewewewwwwww get it away!"

"Ugh. You are like SO immature, Uzumaki."

"I AM NOT YOU CRAZY LADY!"

I covered my ears at the sudden outburst of noise, and walked around the side of a large rock to see a certain blonde being attacked by…Anko?

The sarcastic teacher stood with a basket of peppers and carrots in her arms, outstretched to Naruto. The blonde teen was staring, a horrified gaze on his face as his eyes looked from the offered basket to his teachers' face.

"Fine then! I'll take it!" Anko sniffed at Naruto, and walked off, leaving the vegetable-hating teen behind.

"Blaaaahhh!" Naruto stuck his tongue out at Anko's back.

She whipped around, cheeks flushed, and began taking carrots out of the basket, throwing them at his head like daggers. Naruto, trying to make a quick escape away from the vegetables flying towards him with deadly aim, dove behind a startled Hinata.

Anko stopped the bombardment of orange roots and went to check if the frozen-in-place Hyuuga heiress was alive and well. Naruto scampered off after checking on Hinata, giving Anko one of those you-know-you-shouldn't-have-done-that-and-now-you're-in-deep-shit faces.

Anko looked at him, a cynical yeah-right-you-wish face and marched off, a basket of veggies in one hand, and a stillfrozen-in-shock Hinata in the other.

* * *

**Homigawdz done. Next chappeh is the last chappeh in the beach crap arc, so enjoy it while you can peeoplezzzzz….**

**Reviews are loved. You know I love them. They inspire me to write…so review please!**

**Citree**


	8. Forever Love, Forever Dream

**Last chap in the beach thingy arc. Yaay! Back to where I can be inspired by random things! And huzzah to a long chapter! Why? Well because this update and the last were sort of…late, I don't know...I felt like I needed to write a longer chapter to make up for it. **

Thankehs to Rayray for beta-ing!

**Sorry for the late update… **

Chapter 8: Forever Love, Forever Dream

* * *

"Okay people, if you want to get this dance done before we have to go home, then you better put your internal cell-phones or whatever the heck powers you young people on speed dial!"

Tenten muttered something to herself about people our age being compared to cell-phones and electronics before wandering off to help Neji with some streamers. Ino rolled her eyes at Anko and her megaphone, with a sarcastic, "You know, it probably won't even rain anyways."

I looked at the clear blue sky and nodded in agreement with her. There wasn't a cloud in sight; I highly doubted that in the space of a few hours it could start pouring rain.

Anko frowned, having heard what Ino said, and walked off to where the rest of the teachers were…still sitting. I swear. They hadn't moved since that morning's…incident with Lee's curry. Some of them were still clad in fleece pajamas with little pink hearts, and their names embroidered in fancy calligraphy stitched on the sleeve…thankfully none of them were from the male gender.

I looked around, pulling my hair up into a ponytail to keep it out of my face…someone had pulled out a bunch of boxes from the underneath container of the bus, and revealed it to be something a star DJ would have drooled over. Three or four waist-height speakers, a music control tower and a box with so many CD's, I didn't think you could go through all of their contents in a year.

"Eaaaahh!—mphfglm" A crashing sound came from behind me. Whipping around resulted in the revealing of a certain blonde male who had knocked over a pile of equipment onto himself somehow. Hinata and a few of the other people went to help him get up and put the machinery back where it was. I would have, but then again, running to the aid of someone else when you have stacks of boxes in your arms really isn't the smartest thing to do, now is it?

I sighed at the mess Naruto had created before grabbing a few boxes and setting them down on the side to help clear things up a bit.

"Neji! You don't hang streamers like that!" An exasperated Tenten pulled a roll of white streamers out of Neji's hand.

"Well then how the heck do you hang them!"

"You need to twist them like this!" She pulled about a foot off the roll, twirling it between her fingers.

"Why would I want to do that? Putting them up straight looks fine!"

"No it doesn't!"

"Yes it does!"

"No it doesn't you stubborn Hyuuga re—" Her face turned pink, the roll of streamers being crushed by her fist. One of her buns started to unravel, making her look like some kind of rabid animal or something.

"Why not?" Neji interrupted his face a slightly rosier tinge than his normal pale pallor.

"…"

"See?"

"Shut up Neji."

"Make me."

SMACK. The roll of streamers bounced off Neji's finely groomed head, lying half unrolled in the sand. Both he and Tenten looked at it, fuming at each other, neither giving in to the other to go pick it up.

--  
What noise would streamers make of they bounced off someone's head? --;;  
--

"…"

They finally turned apart, both grabbing a new roll of the paper decorations, the white streamers left to lie on the beach until someone bothered to pick it up.

I rolled my eyes and grabbed a box of new streamers from over where I was, seeing as how Neji and Tenten were using theirs, they would be gone in a couple of minutes.

"OI! DON"T PUT THAT COLOUR THERE!" Tenten had turned around to see Neji wrapping a purple streamer around a second purple one that was already up.

"Well where the heck am I supposed to put it!"

"Stop saying heck Neji." A bored, unexcited voice cut into the conversation. Kakashi stood there, his single visible eye looking about as excited about the whole trip as he would have looked in a normal classroom.

"Well what am I supposed to say?"

"Something other than that. You're setting an example for all the little kids here."

Neji looked around him, at all of the people setting up decorations or speakers who were at least his age or older. He frowned at the grey-haired sensei. "Little kids?"

Kakashi simply shook his head before wandering off somewhere, but I swear I saw his bored black eyes dart over to Gai and Lee. The two bowl-cut spandex-wearing males were sitting in the sand, amidst all of the commotion that was going on around them…building a sand castle.

I traded looks with Shino, who, emotionless as ever had caught Kakashi's quick look over to them. I think he rolled his eyes, but I'm not really sure…he had on those stupid black glasses on, and I couldn't tell what he was thinking from his face, because…well because the only emotion I could see was…nothingness.

Naruto, who was walking past somehow managed to drop a box of paper plates. They flew through the air in seemingly slow motion. Lee made a diving motion, to try and protect the fragile pile of sand he'd been building, but missed, and the plates continued to fall. Gai looked up from putting a tiny paper umbrella—the kind you find in soda drinks, I might add—and opened his mouth in a silent, "NOOOOOOO!"

He flailed his arms out spectacularly in front of him, trying to catch the stack of ten paper plates, bought 50 percent off, but it was too late. The plates landed in the castle, crushing it and the little pink umbrella in one magnificent fall of almost two feet from above. Rivers of tears streamed down Lee's face, and Gai tried his best to imitate the younger version of him, but his face came out more like the backside of a rather wrinkly monkey.

A normally stoic Shino, who had been comply emotionless a moment before, snorted. And what a snort it was! It would have made Tonton, one of our teachers' pet pig proud. Then he left rather quickly, after seeing several people around him look at him weirdly.

Neji rolled his eyes, and turned back to decorating after taking a roll of lime coloured streamers out of the box I was carrying. Tenten turned around to grab one, and stuck her tongue out at Neji as she did. She whipped around to put up the streamer, other bun falling out over her face. With a frustrated huff, she angrily pulled the brown locks back into a messy bun before tacking the pink paper up as if she was trying to kill someone with the little bronze pin. Clenching her teeth, she snatched a pair of scissors from around her waist and attempted to cut the streamers.

"SHIT." Tenten hissed out the curse and grabbed her finger, watching as red drops of blood slid down her wrist into the sand below. The scissors had slipped, leaving a long gash up the side of her hand and half-way down her forearm. I watched her grimace as she attempted to stem the flow of red with a corner of her luckily red sweater.

Neji half ran, half jogged off of his stepladder and over to her, leaving a second roll of white streamers to rot in the sand. I sighed, and walked over to pick it up for him.

"You okay?"

"I'm fine!" she tried to turn away, having still not fully forgiven him for his lack in decorating taste.

"No you're not. There's blood all over your arm." He grabbed her other arm and pulled her away from the scissors, pins and mess of bloody streamers on the sand over to where Genma was reclined in a beach chair.

"Sensei!"

"Mrph…?"

"Tenten cut herself."

Genma opened one eye, pulling sunglasses halfway down his face. In the time of a second, the colour drained from his face. His other eyes opened and he fell out of his chair, legs getting tangled up in the lacquer straps that a second ago had been supporting him. His sunglasses fell off of one ear so they hung askew on his face, covering one eye, and dangling down to his cheek on the other side.

He struggled with the chair and glasses for a moment, before simply telling the Hyuuga and his bleeding counterpart to go to a different teacher, as he found himself stuck. I'm not sure if he actually was, or if he just had a really bad fear of blood, as his face was looking quite a lot paler than usual.

Neji groaned and pulled Tenten, who was still loosing quite a lot of blood, and growing paler by the minute over to where another of the teachers was sprawled out on the sand. I thought about going back to help finish decorating, but Genma looked so helpless that I couldn't help going over to help him. He couldn't have been much older than me, as it was only his first year teaching at the academy, according to Jin's vast knowledge of teachers and their odd histories.

"You need help, sensei?"

He nodded, looking more exhausted than usual, as he kept trying to get untangled from the restraint of the chair.

xXx

"Well! Now that we're all ready for this thing, what should we do next?" Anko clapped her hands together, surveying all of the pretty paper things hanging about in the air around her. She looked like a little kid who had just entered a sweet shop for the first time in their life.

"We didn't plan to have the dance part, as well as dinner until about seven o'clock, and it's only six." Kakashi finished off where Anko, who was still staring at the streamers and trinkets with joy had left off. "Any one got any ideas about what they think would be good until it's time for the dance?"

His eyes fell on me, and I simply shrugged, nothing coming to mind. Ino and Tenten shook their heads.

"SWIMMING!" Lee jumped up from his place beside the still slightly distorted looking castle he and Gai had tried to restore, doing that thumbs-up pinging smile pose he always did. "Let's see who can dive down the deepest!"

"Free diving?" Kakashi looked at Lee, frowning slightly, "Do you know how many people die every year trying to free dive? It's not very safe, and besides, we'll be all wet for the dance and dinner later. No one wants to be in wet clothes when they're eating."

"How about…a three-legged race or something? We always used to do that when we were little, and it used to pass the time pretty quickly. And then maybe after that, we could do the sack-jumping race too, except in our sleeping bags?" Jin spoke up from near the back of the crowd, her crazy little ferret seeming to nod in agreement.

"Sure…but how will we decide the partners and everything?" Anko asked her, finally out of her daze.

"Name drawing again? That seemed to work well last time. But maybe only the three-legged race, because I doubt most of us would enjoy sending our sleeping bags into the dry cleaners to rid them of all the sand that would gather up inside them from jumping around in them on a beach, now would we?" Kakashi pointed out, rubbing his fabric-covered chin thoughtfully. "And maybe we can somehow mix swimming into this…" he looked out of the water, not at all noticing the fact that he was contradicting himself quite badly. "You'd better all put bathing suits on, just incase."

Jin nodded, grabbing Kaida's tail when he tried to jump off of her shoulder and sink his teeth into Lee's leg again. Lee made a face and stuck his tongue out at the ferret when he saw this, but recoiled in the next second when Jin scowled at him. She was very protective of the ferret, even though he often got her into trouble with his constant misbehaviors in class and around the academy. Chasing after Lee and latching onto a spandex-clad leg seemed to be his latest joy.

Genma pulled a bag out of a pocket in his jacket, which mysteriously enough contained all of the names that we had used in the last draw. How he'd managed to obtain them all again, I wasn't so sure…maybe he'd written them all again or something…or perhaps all of the teacher kept extras for everything they used in class. That wasn't the most normal thing I'd ever seen a teacher to do prevent turmoil in a class, but then again, were teacher's ever normal?

I sighed and turned my attention back to the rest of the people who were starting to gather back in the line to draw names again. The weirdness of teachers was something to contemplate on a rainy day, or long car ride. Maybe I'd think about it on the ride back to the academy.

"Who do you think you'll get this time?" Ino and Hinata joined the line behind me.

I laughed, "It doesn't really matter, as long as it's not Lee again!"

Ino snickered at my misfortune, and ducked, narrowly avoiding being hit in the head with a ferret flying on his way towards Lee.

"H-he's r-really not t-that bad, y-you know, S-Sakura" Hinata muttered, gaze fixed determinedly at the sand at her feet.

I looked around for Tenten, but apparently she and Neji hadn't returned with one of the teachers from her incident with the scissors.

xXx

"Growf."

"Are you really sure he's not gonna jump up and take a chunk out of the end of my nose like Kaida?" I looked nervously at the tiny puppy sitting in the sand beside me while Kiba tied our legs together.

"Yes, I'm sure!"

"Cause I thought Kaida was pretty harmless and cute until he started attacking Lee's leg like some kind of rabid little…thing or something."

"You wouldn't if you were a ferret and your caretaker didn't care if you went around biting the legs of people clad in violently green coloured spandex?"

I laughed, "Good point."

"Well Akamaru says he'd like to take a chunk out of Lee, but since Kaida's doing such a good job at it, then he's gonna leave the job to him."

"That's good." I said, grinning at the brown-haired teen.

Kiba finished tying the rope, and with a satisfied sort of noise, attempted to stand up with me. We both toppled over in the sand again, laughing. After a few more tires, though, it began to get rather annoying. Almost like that sitting challenge you do with a partner, when you lock arms and sit down, and then try and stand up without removing your arms. It was frustrating.

"Need some help?" Sasuke asked, having somehow managed to get to his feet with a ferret-bearing Jin. He offered a hand, and tried to pull me up, with Jin tugging on Kiba.

They somehow managed to get us to our feet, with Kaida growling under his breath at a certain someone nearby, and Akamaru yipping his encouragement. Now all we had to do was manage not to topple over again by the end of the race, and we'd be good, I noted with a thankful smile at the Uchiha.

"Is everyone ready for the race?" Genma's voice boomed out over the pairs gathered around in various places on the beach. Apparently, like Naruto, he didn't need a megaphone to make his voice heard by everyone. "If you're ready, then come line up along this strip of red ribbon."

We walked over, not bothering to run and risk falling over again. I looked at the red ribbon that Genma he pointed to. It stretched a fair bit over the beach, maybe about 100 meters, before whipping over to the left, and into the water. Thankfully it didn't go too deep before swerving back onto the beach, and out of sight. This race was going to take longer than expected.

Lee, who was somehow paired up with Sage again almost joined the line beside us, but decided against it when he saw that, unlike Jin, who was tied to Sasuke, Kaida was restrained by nothing.

When Naruto, and a knew from my science class finally joined the line, Genma pulled out a cap gun from the same pocket that the bag of names had come from, as well as a pair of noise reducing earphones to protect him from the noise the gun made. I rolled my eyes; another thing to contemplate. Whether or not Genma's pocket was magically programmed to be bottomless and hold a lot of things, or whether or not anything he needed just randomly appeared when he needed it. Seriously! How often do people walk around with cap guns and headphones, or a bag of names in their pocket on an overnight trip to the beach!

Kiba poked my arm, snapping me back to the real world. "We'll start with the middle leg, okay?"

I gave him a strange look. Middle…leg? Maybe his poke hadn't snapped me back completely or something.

"For the race."

"Oh. Oops. I didn't know what you were talking about for a second." I made an embarrassed smile, and nodded to let him know that I had a brain.

"READY! ON YOUR MARKS, GET SET, GO!" Genma pulled the gun into the air and let a loud crack run out over the beach.

It might have been a god thing for him to have those handy-dandy earphones, but for the people closest to him, when they started running, a loss of proper hearing led to falling down almost immediately. I almost felt sorry for them, but then again, it was a race.

Left, right, left, right.

The rhythm of the footsteps drilled itself into my skull until the only thing I had to wry about were the random obstacles scattered about the track. One of the teachers, presumably Gai, had gone around, scattering things like large bits of driftwood or rocks. More than a few people managed to trip and find themselves lying upside down in the sand when one of their tree legs managed to catch itself and knock the running pair over.

Once, I almost tripped on Akamaru, who was running beside me, but, he somehow managed to avoid my legs, and run over beside Kiba instead, to avoid tripping me.

We were almost at the water, and there were still quite a few people running around us. Sage and Shino, Hinata and some random dude, as well as Ino and Shikamaru, just to name a few of them. Naruto and his partner were somehow managing to keep up as well, despite the fact that both of them were tripping on something every once in a while.

Looking ahead a bit, I saw Jin and Sasuke. It amazed me how far they were from us, but not that much. Jin was, after all, one of the taller girls in my grade, which almost automatically made her really good at running. Sasuke, somehow, was managing to keep up with her long legs without tripping. I laughed, and pointed it out to Kiba. Sasuke almost had to jump every time it was his turn to step forwards with his free leg, and Jin dragged him forwards quite a bit when they stepped with the middle leg.

Kiba snickered at them, and pointed out the fact that the only way Jin could have been paired up with someone and not drag them along with her would have had to be one of the taller teachers.

I opened my mouth to add something else, but whatever my words were going to be, they turned into a yell. We'd just entered the water, and the sudden fact that we couldn't drag out legs forwards as quickly, as well as she shock of cold water freaked me out. Kiba groaned, and covered his ear, deafened slightly from my outburst. I was about to say sorry when my foot caught on an underwater…something, and I swallowed a mouthful of nasty salt water instead.

Surfacing again, I saw Kiba sitting up to his waist in water, a rather dazed look on his face. He shook his head to clear it, and we somehow managed to get to our feet again with the coaxing yips of Akamaru. Wading through the water again, I noticed the Jin was having some trouble in the deeper water. Although having long legs and good running skills on the land might have been good, it wasn't the same in the water. She and Sasuke eventually halted for a break, and we grew closer to them.

At last, back on the land, wet and tired, we started slowing down. Wading through the water for so long wasn't very good for a race, never mind a thee-legged one. We were level with Jin and Sasuke now, who were walking rather than running, which was a good thing for Sasuke. Akamaru gave a challenging yip to them, and Kaida snarled his response.

Jin patted him on the head as if he was a perfect little pet, and kept walking. I sighed, fed up with the race, but I didn't want to loose, and injure Kiba's ego or something. Thankfully, I could see the ending, with Kakashi sitting in as lawn chair much like the one Genma had become entangled in earlier. He stood up when he saw us coming, one of those ugly black and white checkered flags you always see at races in his hands. Genma had probably pulled that from his pocket as well, I thought.

After another tiring couple of steps, we managed to cross the line just behind Jin and Sasuke, with Ino, Shikamaru, Sage and Shino pulling up behind us.

At the resting area, where Anko was sitting with drinks and slices of apple, like some kind of soccer-mom, I collapsed in the sand, dragging Kiba down beside me. I tried to untie our legs, but the knot was too weird, so I just let it be. Kiba watched me try, and after I'd given up, attempted to undo it, but apparently, after having been tied dry, and then soaked in water had done something. He couldn't get it undone either, so we had to wait until Kakashi came around with a pair of scissors to cut everyone loose; we hadn't been the only ones stuck tied together.

"Well!" Anko exclaimed, a happy-and-evil grin on her face after everyone had been freed of their restraints, "Now that you've thoroughly tired your poor little souls out, how about some dinner!

We nodded, although not that enthusiastically. Actually, cut that, the only one that actually nodded was Chouji, and it was probably just because we were having Korean barbeque for dinner or something. Which also added to the mystery of how us, all of our luggage, all of the party stuff, sound and music stuff, as well as fifteen odd portable barbeques fit into one bus without making something explode all over the road on the way here. I groaned inwardly, there was another thing to ponder on the way back. Perhaps the bus was simply bottomless, like Genma's pocket…

But either way, and despite the fact that I hadn't had the energy to nod to Anko, I was starving. Anything that was food sounded good at the moment. I walked back over to where I'd eaten the last two days beside where Sasuke was already sitting. Genma came around and put one of the portable barbeques on the spot where our fire from last night had been.

Jin gave warning look to Lee that said something like if-you-even-come-near-to-cooking-anything-I'm-gonna-set-Kaida-on-you before sitting down across the circle from him. Kaida turned his beady little eyes on Lee, as if possessed by some kind of demon before snuggling into Jin's hair, and lying on her shoulders like a living scarf, his eyes never leaving the shiny bowl-cut hair.

Sage rolled her eyes at the three of them, and dragged Lee's attention away from the ferret, with some dull sort of conversation about the fluctuations of gold on the stock market or something. I didn't bother trying to look, as I'd probably end up being more tired than I already was. Most of my conversations with Sage, Shino and even once in a while Shikamaru tended to end up being quite boring and eventless.

xXx

"Do you think someone's gonna ask you to dance?" Ino whispered in me ear, as Anko and Kakashi fiddles with the sound and music, trying to get it to the right volume so that it wouldn't echo too badly over the ocean.

"No clue…I don't even know most of the guys here that well." I said, looking over all of the people sitting or sanding around talking. "Most of them don't even look like they'd want to dance anyways, though."

Ino giggled, "You'll see. And if no one does ask you, then I'll tell Shikamaru to dance with you, because he has to dance with me anyways."

I looked at her, "But Shitahe's not even here! How will she know if you danced with him or not? And besides, even if she was here, I doubt even Sasuke would ask her to dance."

Ino rolled her eyes, "Believe it or not, even if she's here, she'll find out everything that happened from her 'friends' that are here. And even if Sasuke wouldn't want to dance with her if she was here, she'd find some way to blackmail him through her brother or someone else until he gave in. Everything she does tends to revolve around crafty actions like that."

"Really? I feel sorry for him." I told her, looking at him talk to Neji, and Tenten, who had thankfully recovered from her great loss of blood, with no ill side affects except for being really, really pale.

"Don't."

I looked back at Ino in surprise, "Why?"

"If you constantly got blackmailed and threatened by someone, wouldn't you like…tell a teacher or something? Or at least tell them to stop?"

"Yeah…"

"Well Shitahe first started doing stuff like that to Sasuke in…" She paused, racking her memory for the correct year. "Grade six, I think it was. Well back then, everyone in the opposite gender had cooties, and was disgusting, so Shitahe was considered pretty weird. She always made him help her with homework and stuff, and then over the years it got worse. In grade seven, they started going out, and he only just found the strength to break up with her a couple of weeks ago."

I looked at the sand at my feet, running my toes through it. "That's not very nice… did something happen that made him so un-resistant to stuff like that or something?" I asked, turning back to Ino again.

Ino's normally happy blue eyes turned dull. "You'll probably find out someday, but I don't think it's really my place to talk to you about things like that. Maybe you could ask him about it or something. He seems to like talking to you."

"He likes…talking to me!" I frowned. "I thought the only reason he was even paying attention to the fact that I existed was because I was always around you guys, and you're his friends.

Ino stuck her tongue out, poking me in the stomach, "Of course he pays attention to people! Why wouldn't he know you existed! It's not like your some kind of germ on the back of his hand or something that's easy to wash off with a little bit of soap!"

I laughed, and poked her back. "Some kind of germ! You certainly have a way with words, Miss Yamanaka!"

"Well what was I supposed to compare you with?"

"I don't know, maybe something maybe a little more relevant to the world!"

Ino opened her mouth to say something back at me, but she was cut off short by someone who had come up in front of us with a loud,

"AHEM."

I jumped at the loud voice and looked up into the face of one Nara Shikamaru, who was standing there rather sheepishly. "Are you going to ask me to dance?"

Ino stood up, putting her hand on her hips, as if to mock him, "Shika-kun, girls don't ask guys to dance. It's too weird."

He put a hand behind his head, rubbing it thoughtfully, taking in what Ino had just said. "Um…well…"

Ino raised one eyebrow, looking at him, her eyes sparkling once again.

"Um…do you want…" he looked up at the moonlit clouds, still partly dyed pink from the dying sun, "Ugh, this is so troublesome."

"Do I want to…what?"

"Doyouwanttodance?" he blurted out, his words coming so quickly I couldn't even distinguish the space between them.

Ino's raised eyebrow dropped down into a frown, her hands coming off of her waist, making her the exact picture of someone who knew what was going to happen, but knew that it was going to take a while for it to actually happen.

Shikamaru sighed, a slight rosy tinge coming into his cheeks, "Do you want to dance?"

Ino grinned, and grabbed his hands, leading him off into the center of the ring, where couples were already dancing. Although it really wasn't much f a dance…still that awkward see-saw sort of 'in one place' dance that you do when you first start out dancing. Although, I have to admit, no one actually really gets down to boogie like you see in the movies. You only do the see-saw, or get all hyper and jump around with your friends; no actually 'dancing dancing'.

I smiled, when Ino and her 'Shika-kun' joined the other see-sawing couples, and went over to where a white-as-paper Tenten was sitting with Neji. She nodded, and waved her un-injured hand when she saw me coming over, and Neji merely nodded at me, like most of the guys with his emotional range did. Looking at Tenten's other arm revealed quite a few stitches, as well as some of the gauze cloth bandages that I often saw wrapped around some of the other girls' arms when we were sparring hand-to-hand in weapons class.

"You managed to survive somehow?" I asked Tenten, pointing to the stitches on her arm, which made her look like some kind of hero of war or something.

"Yeah." She grinned, "Thanks to Neji, who somehow managed to get Shizune-sensei to drive twenty miles above the speed limit to get to the hospital."

I looked at Neji in surprise, but he wouldn't meet my eyes. "How fast was the speed limit!"

"It was only 60mph because the hospital was in a school zone thingy, so we were going like…really fast for a place like that. At first he wanted to drive, but Shizune said that he wasn't allowed to touch her car, so he just sort of sat in the driver's seat…doing something…" She frowned, trying to remember, but nothing came, "I can't really recall anything, because apparently I was in some kind of traumatic shock or something. I don't know if that's true, but that's what the doctor said after I go the stitches in.

Neji rolled his eyes, and walked off, apparently not enjoying the praise Tenten was giving him.

She stuck her tongue out at his retreating back before turning her attention back to me. "I know he doesn't like me talking about stuff he does. He thinks it makes him sound too full of himself or something."

"How? Wouldn't it be something good to have someone praise you?"

"Apparently not to him it isn't."

I rolled my eyes at the Hyuuga, and leaned back in my chair, looking up at the sky. Maybe I could start to ponder about Genma's pocket, or the bottomless bus or something. I looked back towards the see-sawing dancers again, saving my contemplations for later.

Ino, who had been weird enough about dancing before, and how it was all to prove that she could like up to Shitahe's expectations or something seemed to have forgotten that it was all because of a challenge. She was swaying back and forth to the beat of the music with Shikamaru, eyes closed, and her head leaning on his chest. He wasn't staring up at the sky so awkwardly anymore, but his eyes were still affixed to it, almost dreamily. Ino's blue eyes opened slightly, and closed again.

I looked up at the sky too, taking in the far off cold, yet twinkling light that the tiny bits of white had scattered across a giant blue-black canvas. I felt Tenten stand up and walk away when someone called her, but I stayed seated. She'd probably gone off to dance with someone.

One of my favorite slow-dancing songs from my old school started playing, and I couldn't help swaying my head from side to side. (A/N: song Forever Love by X Japan, translated into English)

_I'll never walk alone again; the winds of time are to strong.  
Ah, it's that what you hurts, which you'll have to live with...  
Ah, this tight embrace, and this burning, unchanged heart.  
In this ever changing time, love will never change. _

_  
_I closed me eyes, going back into a little imaginative world that I kept in the back of my mind for times like this. It was like a whole little world, only for me, and I could loose myself in it whenever I felt like it. You might call it daydreaming, but I preferred to think of it as my own little world.

_  
Will you hold my heart? Stop flowing tears.  
Again, all of my heart is broken... _

Forever love, forever dream  
Only flowing emotions, bury this intense,  
trying, meaningless times.  
Oh tell me why ... all I see is blue in my heart.

I subconsciously raised my hands up as if I were dancing with someone, not caring if the whole world was watching.

_  
Will you stay with me? Wait until after the wind passes,  
all my tears are still flowing... _

Forever love, forever dream

_Stay with me like this.  
Hold my trembling heart in the dawn.  
Oh stay with me... _

Hands took mine, interlocking fingers with my own, pulling me to my feet. I looked up a few inches into onyx pools of darkness shining from the light of the stars above. Dark strands of hair framed the pools, opposing the pale sink hidden underneath them. "You want to dance?"

Ah, everything good seems to be ending,  
in this unending night.  
Ah, what else would you lose if nothing at all matters.

I grinned, and walked over to the spot where all the other couples were dancing. I put my hands around his neck, and he put his around my waist. I closed my eyes when that comforting smell entered my senses. Sasuke rocked back and forth with me, a mirror image of all the other see-sawing couples on the sand. Honestly…couldn't they think of any other dancing moves? Even a waltz would have been cooler than simply rocking back and forth like some kind of nervous wreck. Actually…most of them were probably nervous, to some extent. After all, dancing with someone of the opposite gender wasn't really something you do everyday, now was it? At my old school, etiquette had been one of the main focuses, so we'd all learned how to dance. Apparently the students of _this_ academy didn't know how to do anything other than see-saw.

It would have been nice if they had learned how to dance. I felt like moving in a different motion than simply rocking back and forth to the music, inhaling Sasuke's personal smell. Although…it wasn't a bad thing…I'd just have liked to move around more._  
Forever love, forever dream, _

_Stay with me like this.  
Hold my trembling heart in the dawn. _

The chorus picked up, and I felt Sasuke hesitate. I tilted my head upwards to look at his face, but before I could, he took in a deep breath, and twirled me around. My body moved by itself, following the steps of a dance that he'd brought me into.

My inner self laughed quietly. I _had_ been wrong; perhaps not about everyone, but for sure about Sasuke.

Oh will you stay with me... Until the wind passes,  
stay with me again.

The song slowed down slightly as it neared its end. Sasuke pulled me close to himself again. I closed my eyes once more, and leaned my head against his chest. He put his hands on my waist, falling back into a slower rocking to the music. My mind emptied of everything. Even time seemed to stop, as the ending of the song continued to play in my mind, as if not wanting to end…

Forever love, forever dream, I'll never walk this path.  
Oh tell me why, tell me true, and teach me how to live.  
Forever love, forever dream, within flowing tears  
Bright seasons will forever change again and again...  
Forever love...

* * *

**I'm sorry for the late update e.e;;**

**Note, the song above is Forever Love by X Japan, and I used a translation, cause the Japanese lyrics looked really weird to me in an English fic.**

**R&R are much loved and appreciated! **

-Citree


	9. Of Liberty and Spandex

Chapter contains much randomness, and some NejiTen, so hooray.

And…sorry for updating late

Chapter 9: Of Liberty and Spandex

* * *

I walked into art class, very much tired from the night before. That was the only thing bad about coming back from the trip early; we were supposed to get back on Friday night, but instead came back on Thursday night. This led to having to go to school and being very, very tried from getting back to the academy at about 3 in the morning.

I yawned, and took my usual art seat in-between Kiba and Lee. At the beginning of the semester, I'd been sitting with Tenten and Jin, but Gai-sensei had decided that sitting with people you were going to talk with through his youthful speeches wasn't very good for you, so he'd moved us. Although if his purpose of moving us had been to make us mad, the only people in the class that were actually mad about it were Shitahe and Sage, who had ended up sitting together.

"YOSH! Today we'll be drawing with our special 2B pencils that are softer than HB pencils which makes them better to draw pretty pictures with!" Gai gave a gigantic flashy grin to the class, and proceeded in jumping onto his desk, and striking a pose like the one superman did in his first movie.

Someone threw a pencil case at him, and he toppled over onto the floor, landing in a disgruntled heap, only to jump back up again in two seconds to blind us again with his teeth.

Jin smashed her head against the desk several times, "Why? Why did I take art over everything else I could have chosen! WHY!"

Hinata patted her sympathetically on the back, and grabbed a pencil from the cart that Sage was pushing around.

I looked at the blank paper before me, pondering what to draw. I sighed, and looked around me. In less than two seconds, everyone else in the class was getting to work, pencils to paper, drawing whatever the heck they were…except for Shitahe. She just sat there, feet on her desk, blowing bubbles with her gum, reading the latest issue of Orange Hill Celeb Craze. Gai gave her several warning looks, a vein popping in his forehead before giving up.

He got up quietly from his desk so she wouldn't notice, and crept over to her, close to the floor, being as silent as he could in the silent class. He got closer and closer, although an oblivious Shitahe didn't even notice that he was gone from his desk and creeping up to her.

Now, he was right in front of her desk, parallel to the floor. An evil grin (that still pinged, mind you) formed on his face, as he crouched in front of an unsuspecting Shitahe.

"THAT LOOKS LIKE AN INTERESTING MAGAZINE, MISS SUZUME!"

"HOLYSHIT! " Shitahe cursed, loosing her perfectly balanced act with legs extended on her desk and only two of her chair legs on the floor. She gave a shriek and fell backwards out of her chair, landing on her head, legs up in the air, giving everyone in front of her a rather nice view of her underwear.

Kiba turned a snort into a laugh, and covered his face with a hand when Shitahe turned to glare at him, face a violent shade of crimson. I looked over at Lee, who was sitting there, a shocked look on his face, mouth open in a silent "O".

The lavender-haired teen sat up indignantly, cheeks still quite red, and teeth gritted, a murderous look on her face. Gai gave her a flashy smile, and walked back to his desk, tossing the magazine he'd confiscated in his hand and catching it several times before he sat down.

I snickered, and turned back to my paper, which was still blank. I tried to think of something to draw, but nothing came into my mind still. I gave up, and leaned back in my chair.

"Lee, what are you drawing?" I turned to the spandex-clad teen, bored, looking at his paper.

"Gai-sensei's face!" he said proudly, holding the picture up in the air for me and everyone else around us to see.

"OMFGWTFBBQ?" Kiba screeched and recoiled as far as he could from the drawing.

"GAI-SENSEI! LEE DREW A PICTURE OF A FETUS!"

Gai, who was in the middle of tossing the magazine up into the air again dropped it on the floor and stood up, bracing himself with his hands on the desk before him. "Lee! Why are you drawing a picture of a fetus in my art class?"

"I'm not! Lee protested, holding the sketch up higher.

"Then what is it!"

"Your face!"

"…"

"…"

"Lee…"

"…yes Sensei?"

"Lee! I'm so proud of you!" Gai beamed and jumped over rows and rows of desks in one giant leap.

The light of a blood-red sunset streamed into the classroom as Gai beamed down proudly at his tearing student with streaming eyes. I heard several thunking noises as several heads in various places around the classroom met with the wood of a desk…quite hard.

"LEE!"

"GAI-SENSEI!"

"LEEE!"

"GAI-SENSEI!"

"SHUTUP YOU STUPID MORONS!" Shitahe screeched. She stood up, slammed her hands on her desk and grabbed a chair, hurling it at two spandex-clad males in one swift, fluid motion.

The chair flew through the air in slow motion, spinning slightly. Lee dove to protect his fetus. Gai dove to protect Lee.

CRUNCH.

The chair met contact…with Gaara's head.

Silence fell upon the class, and a look of impending doom glued itself to Shitahe's face. Lee frantically scrambled to make sure his fetus was alright before framing it with a glue stick and plastic chopsticks he pulled out of his spandex suit, completely oblivious to the fact that Gaara was glaring quite menacingly at the three of them.

There are always things to ponder in my life. One, may be where people **keep their chopsticks in skin tight spandex suits**…or even before that, why they were carrying plastic chopsticks on **themselves** in the first place. Perhaps there would be another rainy day or car-ride where I could contemplate life again.

The doomed look on Shitahe's face remained there. Perhaps it had been stuck like that with Krazy glue, because that stuff can honestly glue your hands together, and you'll have to rip skin off to get them apart. One of those intelligent males at my old school had been pimp enough to try.

Gaara's bottomless aqua eyes turned towards Shitahe. She gulped and bolted out of the classroom, Gaara's eyes drilling a hole into the back of her skull.

Gai wiped wet glue off of his jump-suit, probably from the open bottle on Lee's desk, and walked over to a wall, pinning Lee's fetus on a blackboard with a hideous homemade magnet that had his face on it. Above the board read "Wall of Fame" in messy calligraphy. But for all the world, it should have read "Wall of Spandex", as the only pictures on it seemed to be of Gai, Lee, or both of them together, and not surprisingly, the only artists were…you guess it, Gai and Lee.

xXx

"So…" Anko paced back and forth in front of her normally only girl's self defense class. It had swelled over twice its size when all of the guys had been added, and there were people in every desk except the one directly in front of her. (I'd heard from Ino that the last person sitting there got hearing problems.)

"So…" Anko repeated, scanning her eyes over the stuffed classroom.

"S—" Anko was about to repeat herself for the third time when Jin interrupted.

"So what?" The redheaded teen placed her head on both of her hands, staring intently at the teacher as if waiting for her to blurt out something that was going to change the face of history forever.

"Well…" Anko sighed, as if tired, rubbing the heel of her left hand into her eye. "I bet you're all wondering why we're having this class together, huh?"

Almost everyone in the class nodded, except for a few people in the back, who were talking and not paying any attention to anything…although their lack of incompetence didn't really seem to bother Anko much.

"Well," she repeated again. Jin's eyebrows curved down into a frown over her eyes, and Anko hurriedly began talking again without repeating, "It was the headmaster's decision to make this class a combined one." She sat down at her desk, and propped her head on her hands. "Normally this year, and for every other year that this school has been running, this particular portion of this class was taken separate. Even at the time when I was in school. Apparently he thinks it's time for a change, and that everyone should get to know things…"

I frowned. Things! Maybe Bob-sama's brain had gone for a little vacation or something again.

"And to help me with all of this, since the class is so big, we'll be having Kakashi-sensei in until this unit is done and over with."

As if on queue, the mask-wearing teacher walked out of a door somewhere behind Anko. A black bandana with the kanji symbols for music, life and joy on it covered his left eye. It replaced the plain navy one that was usually there. Maybe teaching something other than geography had given him such a joyful feeling that he'd decided to change it…either way, I'd never know.

He sat down in a chair beside Anko, and proceeded in opening up a book and reading. Anko rolled her eyes at him, and turned back to the class. For all the world, Kakashi might as well not have been there. "So, does anyone have any ideas on what this unit will be about, while we're on the subject?"

No one put their hand up like an enthusiastic two-year-old, so Anko simply chose someone at random…which turned out to be Naruto.

"Um…" Naruto frowned, racking his memory, his face wrinkling up with concentration. "It's something like…Pu. Pub. Purty. No…that's no it…" he ran a hand through spiky blonde locks. "It's something with an 'erty' at the end, right?"

Anko slouched in her seat, nodding slowly, and zonked out expression on her normally evilly-grinning face.

"LIBERTY!" Naruto half stood up, placing both of his hands on his desk, as if to end his outburst with oomph.

Anko's head slipped off of her hands, and hit the wood of her desk. Sasuke whacked Naruto on the head with his textbook, and a muttered insult of, "Dobe…"

Kakashi rolled his visible eye, and pulled down an overhead curtain from out of nowhere. He pulled an overhead out from underneath someone's des, and flicked the lights off.

"Today, class, we'll be watching a video on the marvelous thing that we all know as puberty. Aside from Naruto, of course. He'll be learning about liberty instead." The gray-haired teacher threw a magazine with a picture of the Statue of Liberty on the cover at the blonde's head before attaching a laptop to the overhead screen with some kind of fancy USB cord.

"Hello boys and girls, today we'll be learning about growing up!" an overly cheery woman came onto the screen, talking out of the TV like we were all some sort of two year olds.

I rolled my eyes, and leaned my head on the desk in front of me, not really willing to listen to some sort of freaky woman tell me how I was growing up when I was already sixteen years old. Music blared from the speakers as the extremely horrible actors droned on and on about the wonders of puberty. I slunk down into my chair as a overly happy song erupted out of no where.

"CHANGES KEEP FALLING…"

This was going to be a very, very, VERY long period.

xXx

"Sakura…wake up!" Jin prodded my shoulder with a finger.

I opened one eye and looked at her. "S'class over?"

She nodded, and waited for me to pack up my books.

"What was the movie like?" I asked, stuffing my binder and textbook into my tote bag.

"No clue…I was playing fetch with Kaida. He kept threatening to eat Lee's leg again, so I threw my eraser around the class so he had something to do."

"Oh… so like no one actually watched it?"

"Nope."

"…" I looked over towards the teacher's desk, where Anko was softly snoring away, her mouth open slightly. Kakashi was still seated beside her, reading something that looked suspiciously like porn. Actually cut that…I think it _was_ porn.

I shook the thought from my head, and followed Jin and Tenten to the home economics class, sighing. The beach trip had been a little bit higher up on the scale than something I would consider normal for a field trip, but it wasn't nearly as odd as coming back to school seemed to be.

"I wonder what Genma-sensei will have planned for us today…" I muttered, hoisting my bag farther up on my shoulder so it didn't drag on the floor when we were walking up the stairs. Jin waved, and walked off to her next class, while I followed Tenten into the home economics class where Genma was seated, legs propped up on the desk, a knitting needle stuck in his mouth like some sort of gigantic toothpick.

I frowned at him and took my seat at the back of the classroom beside Sasame, a quiet girl I didn't know very well. Well…I guess I might get to know her if I talked to her a bit more, but every time I did, we always ended up in awkward silence. So I tried avoiding it as often as possible. She **clearly also** wasn't the type of person who enjoyed chatting away with people when you got the privilege of sitting at the back of the class.

Lee jumped into the classroom, clothed in a hideous green jumper that looked as though he'd made it himself…and he probably had for that matter.

"Is this good, Genma-sensei!" He screeched proudly, probably deafening half of the people around him.

"Hn." Genma answered, twirling the knitting needle around in his mouth.

Lee smile grew wider, waiting for Genma to say something.

"…"

Lee's mouth seemed to stretch beyond what completely normal humans were capable of.

"…"

Slightly disheartened, Lee's ear-to-ear smile now made him look like he was in a great deal of pain, although he struggled not to let it leave his face.

Genma gave up hoping that Lee would go and sit down, "It's very…green, Lee."

Lee gave a squeal and skipped over to his seat, beaming proudly.

Genma rolled his eyes and turned back to the rest of us, fingers intertwined with each other.

xXx

"Today's Friday, right?" I asked Tenten, walking along beside her on the way back to the dorms.

"Yup!" she grinned, "Tomorrow's the weekend!"

I gave a sigh of relief, and plopped myself down on my bed, staring at the ceiling.

Tenten muttered something, and I tilted my head up enough to see her go into the bathroom. School, however nice and happy it could be, was not something that I had ever been overly excited about. Why? Maybe simply because of the fact that it was school, and there's like one big gigantic stereotype that says everyone should hate school…or maybe there's simply one that says if you like school then you're a nerd…

I sighed, and turned on my side, staring at the blank wall beside me. I'd have to ask Tenten if there were any good poster shops around here, as staring at a black white wall every night when you try and sleep really isn't that nice.

I shut my eyes, trying to imagine what my side of the room could look like with a few posters and other things tacked up when knocking awoke me from my pre-weekend stupor.

"Sakura, is Tenten here?" Familiar lavender eyes peeked around the corner of my doorframe, looking around the room for a certain brown-haired girl. "I wanted to see if her arm was any better."

I yawned, pointing to the bathroom door from which I'd seen Tenten disappear behind.

He knocked.

No answer.

His knuckles bashed on the door for a second time and it swung open. For a second that seemed to pass by in slow motion, poor Neji simply stood there, normally large eyes stretched larger with shock. Blood spurted from his nose, and fainted over dead, a horrified Tenten clad in only a bra and underwear stared at him with as much shock as he'd stared at her with. Apparently she'd been running water for a bath or something, as the tub was full of water…probably the reason she hadn't heard him knock, I thought.

I glanced at the door Tenten had disappeared behind and rolled over again, staring at the wall as a flush-faced Tenten slammed the door. Neji lay on the floor in front of the bathroom, both eyes twitching. Because perverted Neji's so special, he has double-eye-twitching abilities.

* * *

Yeah, I know the update was late…please don't kill me! Exams are coming up, so i'm sorta stressed, but I promise i'll update more once they're over!

-Citree


End file.
